Glass 
Book 



CANDID REVIEW 

OF 

TEN LETTERS, 

CONTAINING REASONS FOR NOT EMBRACING THE 
DOCTRINE OF 

SALYilTIOK, 

BY REV. J^OEI. KAWES. 

TO WHICH ARE ADDED 
THIRTEEN 

FRIENDIiY LETTERS 

TO A 

CANDIDATE FOR THE MZNISTRIT. 

BY RUSSEL CANFIELD. 



PRINTED By AND FOB THE AUTHOR. 



1827, 



ADVESITISXSIKIEM'T. 



The following' Review and Letters, originally appeared in 
the Religious Inquirer, under the signatures which they now 
bear. As readers of that paper, and others, have thought them 
worthy of preservation in a more permanent and concentrated 
form, the writer has been induced to present them to the pub- 
lic in the present dress. They are sent out with the best wish- 
es of the publisher, that their usefulness may equal the fre- 
quently expressed belief of his friends, and the friends of free 
inquiry. He only asks that the reader will examine the facts 
and arguments by which his principles are sustained, with a 
determination to receive the truth in the love of it. As to the 
various statements of facts, from which he has occasionally 
drawn arguments — the reader will judge for himself. What- 
ever be the merits or demerits of the composition, and the 
conduct of the argument, they are exclusively his, and he alone 
is amenablcc If he has erred in his deductions, the error is that 
of the judgment — not of the heart. 



TO THE PUBLIC. 

The author of t lie folio vying- pages is not vain enough to sup- 
pose that the events of his life are sufficiently important to at- 
tract great pubiic attention. He is fully sensible of the diffi- 
culties under which a self- biographer labours, and knows that 
in this species oi writing* few have attained to mediocrity. But 
the situation in which he is placed as a polemical writer! under 
all the disadvantages of circumscribed time, limited opportuni- 
ties, and an unpopular cause, embolden him to say, that the 
narrative he is about to give, is both proper and expected. Be- 
ing reared in the very focus of Calvmism — connected by the 
ties of consanguinity and other relationship, with a number of 
the clergy, and measurably dependant on the orthodox for the 
means of subsistence, what could induce him to leave the reli- 
gion of his fathers, and to embrace a doct ine which is a sure 
passport of ridicule and contempt? He had no antipathies to 
gratify — no family dissentions to alienate his affections — and no 
church quarrels to cause a re-action. No subtle casuist em- 
ployed the arts of sophistry to entangle him, nor was he led to 
embrace his present principles, but by the gradual progress of 
light shining on the mind from the pages of revelation. 

Until the year 1801, 1 had never heard a universalian preach- 
er, nor read a book of that description, the Bible only except- 
ed. In the summer of that year, 1 heard Mr. Glover, of New- 
town, Conn, and from that time thought the truth of the doc- 
trine at least possible. But the collisions of different sects, the 
jarring opinions of those who laid equal claims to orthodoxy, 
and the impressions which were deeply engraven on my mind 
in boyhood, led finally to doubt the authenticity of the scrip- 
tures, and I settled down in Deism. My mind was not indeed 
suited with this sentiment, but it seemed to me a less laborious 
task to foil those called christians by adverting to the apparent 
discrepancy of the scriptures, and the real difference in senti- 
ment between those who termed themselves ambassadors of 
lieaven, than to search for truth, where so many great and 
learned men had sought to little purpose. From 1801, until 
J 811, 1 was a professed Deist. To Elder Edward Mitchell, of 
New York, I owe the suggestion of the first idea which has led 
to my present sentiment. By a discourse in which he urged 
the importance of searching the scriptures, I was persuaded to 
follow his directions. By the help of a concordance, corres- 
ponding passages were frequently examined, and served as mu- 
tual interpreters. This system resulted in the gradual pro- 
gress of information and comfort. But the system, as taught 
by Mr. M. was still ambiguous. The denunciation of eternal 
death or endless misery, to which he gave great credit — the 
^'*«^arious sacrifice of Christ,"-and correspondent doctrines of 
: . ^itv, were all bars in the way of a clear understanding 
"V of the scheme which he advocated. My mind 
system which required the sacrifice of 



TO THE PUBLIC. 



justice in the salvation of all men. The sentiment which, as I 
thought, rendered Grod a mutable being-, impaired my confi- 
dence in his wisdom and his omniscience ; and the necessity of 
the sufferings and death of Christ, as Jehovah, to propitiate him- 
self^ appeared in any other than a rational light. AW the fac- 
ulties of my mind were called into requisition to reconcile the 
absurdity of imputmg transgression to a righteous person, and 
punishing him as a smner, while the wicked escaped the inflic- 
tion of that discipline which 1 thought was clearly threatened in 
the scriptures. During this trial of mind, a friend lent me some 
of Mr. Ballou's works, and light immediately shone on the un- 
derstanding. From him I learned, that the mission of Christ 
was to save men from deserving — not from deserved punish- 
ment. This sentiment is now so well confirmed, that it will 
never be forgotten, while the light of reason illumines the un- 
derstanding. 

When the letters of Mr. Ilawes appeared in the Observer and 
the Secretary, I was earnestly invited to review them. Know- 
ing that they were considered by some as unanswerable, and as 
they embraced a great variety of topics, I was not at first pre- 
pared to undertake the work. But frequent solicitations pre- 
vailed — the work was accomplished, though under very ad- 
verse circumstances. It was well received by the public, 'and 
frequent suggestions were offered, as an inducement to publish 
the whole in a book form. To this step 1 have finally been in- 
duced, and a small impression of only one thousand copies, is 
now offered to the public for perusal. The labour has been 
great, and several subjects have received less attention than I 
should be glad to bestow. Every subject of importance, has 
however, received close attention, and every argument of any 
weight been fairly quoted, and honestly examined. The pub- 
lication of the whole of Mr. H's Letters, would add nothing to 
his arguments, and every person may see that no important 
stafement has been omitted. 

I Jiave not dwelt so fully on two of Mr. H's assertions as I 
originally anticipated ; viz. the wide extent of the belief in end- 
less misery, and the various consequences of virtue and vice. 
Examples could easily be given from history, going to prove 
conclusively, that a uniform national belief has no necessary 
connexion with truth. Faith in particular tenets has been ef- 
fectually established by the sword, and the descendants of those 
who have thus submitted, have been equally as faithful to the 
tenets received, as were their conquerors. 

To say> as Mr. H. does, that the vicious are equally as hap- 
py in this world as the righteous, is so absurd, that it hardly re- 
quires a serious refutation. Scripture and experience, are both 
utterly against it, and the assumption is calculated to lead the 
mind to infidel principles and licentious conduct. 

RUSSEL CANFIELD. 

Hartford, June, 1827. 



CANDID REVIEW. 



To Rev. Joel Haw es^— Hartford. 

Sir — I make no apology for addressing these stric- 
tures to you — the substance and style of the letters 
being too obviously yours to admit a rational doubt 
concerning their authorship. Without further pre- 
face, then, I shall proceed to the investigation of their 
contents. 

On a careful perusal of these letters, I am persua- 
ded the following statements can be fully supported ; 

1 • They contain assertions, and questions in the 
affirmative form, as reason and data for argument, 
which you do not, and cannot sustain. 

2. They exhibit deductions, which, if true, would 
destroy the very principle for which you contend, 

3. They offer as proof of certain tenets, scraps of 
scripture, in a mutilated form, bearing obvious marks 
of " handling the word of God deceitfully.'' 

These you will consider as high charges — they are 
— and the writer is ready to hazard every thing dear 
to the human heart oii the event of supporting them, 
in their most literal import and extent. 

Your first appeal is to prudence, from which 
the following is a fair quotation ; 

" It is a maxim, the correctness of which you will 
readily admit, that in every question of duty and hap- 

2 



14 



CANDID REVIEW. 



piness, where one side is doubtful, and the other «afe, 
we are bound to take the safe side. Act according to 
this maxim, and you cannot be a Universahst. Those 
who beheve in a future state of retribution, and en- 
deavour to prepare for it by a life of penitence and 
faith, will certainly be saved. On this point there is 
no doubt/' 

He must indeed be a novice, who does not perceive 
the second sentence to be a mere assumption of the 
very ground in debate, which you are bound to sup- 
port, without depending on the sophistry of a petitio 
principii^ and which you would support, were your 
power equal to your design. Why cannot a pfudent 
man be a Universalist ? No reason is given — no argu- 
ment used — nor does creation furnish one. 

It is generally understood that you were settled on 
Calvinistic principles, but you seem now to have 
taken the very ground for which the Calvinistic Coun- 
cil of Dort burnt Barneveldt^ a disciple of James Ar- 
minius. These are your words : 

How then, in such a case, would a prudent man 
act ? He would choose the safe side. He would live 
and act like those who expect to give account, and 
endeavour to make sure his salvation on the same 
grounds on which they expect to be saved.'' 

When penning this, you might not be aware that in 
a future letter, (the 9th) you would find it necessary 
to charge the Universalists with having " no uniform 
character,'^'* 

The next passage worthy of notice is a question put 
into the affirmative form, as follows : 

Can he then, be in his right mind, who puts td 
hazard the interests of his soul — who shuns the path 
w^hich he knows will infallibly conduct him to heaven, 
and pursues one which, to say the least, may lead him 
4own to hell?" 



CANDID REVIEW. 



This quotation contains such a palpable absurdity, 
and brings a charge so repugnant to our every day'^s 
observation, that it requires particular notice. The 
contemptible hypocrisy which it imputes to Univer- 
salists, is the least of its deformities. With what a 
grace this charge comes from one professing a popular 
doctrine, always the hot-bed of hypocrites, is left for 
those to decide, who know the most certain avenues 
to the human heart. What temptations are offered by 
the doctrine or its defenders — what premiums ccm 
be offered, save the slander and persecution of the 
orthodox ? 

The gross absurdity of this charge, and its utter 
destitution of truth, are obvious to the youngest capa- 
city. We are charged by you with embracing this 
doctrine, knowing that it is not merely false, but, that 
it will inevitably lead us down to regions of hopeless, 
interminable despair, and that its opposite will as in- 
fallibly lead to realms of bliss, without alloy, and 
without end. Dare you say that you know this, or 
that the assertion is supported by the most distant ap* 
pearance of probability ? 

But what principle in the constitution of man leads 
him to seek remediless wo, in a future world, through 
the medium of a system, which makes him obnoxious 
to the derision, and persecution of knaves and fools in 
this ? Where is the charm to work this miracle^ — this 
abandonment of desire for happiness, implanted in 
every man, which breathes the air, or sees the light of 
heaven ? But is it indeed so ? has a Protestant Cler- 
gyman in these enlightened days, the temerity thus to 
hurl the thunderbolts of damnation on all who refuse 
to bow the knee at the shrine of his motely system ? 
Are we yet under the dictation of the holy mother 
churchy out of which is no salvation ? 

In this quotation, works are the ground of accept- 
ance with God — have you no uniform character .^^^ 



16 CANDID REVIEW. 



After inquiring for a motive to embrace Universal- 
ism (and very properly too, on your hypothesis) you 
ask: 

" Will you say that it opens an easier and pleasanter 
way to heaven, than the doctrine which teaches a fu- 
ture state of retribution ? It may be so in respect to 
those who wish to go to heaven in their sins ; but not 
to those who love God and delight in his service/' 

The tenet of future retribution is so important in 
your system, that it seems you consider nothing easy 
or pleasant without it. Astonishment seems to have 
laid hold on your faculties, that any person should pre- 
fer the plan of making all men holy, and consequently 
happy, through any other medium, as easier and pleas- 
anter, than that of future retribution. It is conceded, 
however, that men who desire to enjoy heaven in their 
sins^ (who teaches this ?) prefer another method, while 
those who love God, and delight in his service, have 
very different sentiments. On the effect of this fear 
of a future retribution, I shall meet you with an extract 
from an orthodox source. Its harmony with the best 
feelings of a Christian's heart, and with the most un- 
yielding testimony of facts, renders it worthy of pre- 
servation. 

"Love, and not this fear of punishment, is that 
which influences to all acceptable obedience. It is 
indeed true, that the Scriptures speak of a fear, which 
has influence in this obedience. But it is not this fear 
of punishment. It is a filial, reverential fear, which 
is itself the fruit of love, as all acceptable obedience is. 
Let love rule in the heart, and influence the obedience, 
and then, though all fear of punishment be removed, 
obedience will still be regarded. Angels and saints in 
glory are obedient. But they have ' no fear of future 
punishment. They are influenced by love. 

"'Tis love that makes their cheerful feet," 
In swift obedience move.'' 



CANDID REVIEW. 



17 



"And our obedience should be like theirs. Indeed, 
all acceptable obedience, in this respect, is like theirs. 
Itis the fruit of love." But this point will be more 
fully examined in a future number. 

The next quotation on which it is thought proper to 
bestow the labour of criticism, is in the following 
words : 

How it can be honourable to God to set aside the 
sanctions of his word, and to represent him as treating 
the righteous and the wicked alike, it is very difficult 
for me to conceive/' 

It is certainly unfortunate for a person, who would 
be thought to act consistently, that he has embraced a 
system for which not merely consistency, but truth 
must be sacrificed. That this reproof may be felt, 
you will please remember, that in the ninth letter, it 
is thus written : 

" It is said that men receive in this world, all the 
punishment they deserve ; and therefore cannot be 
justly punished in the world to come.'' 

Now, Sir, I beseech you by the fear of having 7io 
uniform character^ in the event of withholding the in- 
formation, to say how you can represent us as insist- 
ing on a punishment according to desert in this world, 
and at the same time setting aside the sanctions of the 
Divine law ? In what part of the divine law is the 
threatening of endless misery appended to the viola- 
tion of its commands? "He that hath a dream^ let 
him tell a dreamy and he that hath my word, let him 
speak my word faithfully." You represent us as set- 
ting aside the sanctions of God's law, while your own 
concession denies the truth of the charge. The com° 
munity of which you are a member will expect a. 
reply. 

But another remark waits for introduction to this- 
subject. You have set aside the sanctions of the. 
divine law" by the most unquaUfied declaration, that 



18 



CANDID REVIEW. 



a man may sin as with a cart-rope ninety-nine yearg 
and eleven months, repent and beUeve as you bid him, 
and ascend to immediate glory, and neither suffer for 
the demerits of sin in this world, nor in the next ; 
while a youth of twenty, comparatively innocent, may 
die prematurely, without your repentance, or your be- 
lief, and welter in torments while God exists. Does 
this avowal harmonize with other declarations, to give 
you a uniform character ? 

I will now call your attention once more to my third 
quotation from your Letters. — No man of common 
sense dots believe it — no one ca?i believe it, and were 
it not a forlorn hope, even you would not dare to make 
the assertion. Not only is the assumption viewed 
with pity by every man who knows the workings of 
his own heart, in the strong desire for happiness, but 
every man of any good degree of information, gives 
his dissenting voice to its every conclusion. It recog- 
nizes the principle, that a belief in the tenet of endless 
misery, ensures a state of future happiness, and that 
whoever doubts this opinion, has lost his senses. I 
shall not here insist upon what you say relative to the 
sanctions of the divine law, for it is fair to presume, 
that you wish to vindicate the doctrine that the fear 
engendered by this darling tenet, inevitably leads to a 
life of virtue, acceptable to God, and ensuring his 
salvation, h this the fact ? That it is not, you shall 
have full proof from orthodox authority. — Your fa- 
vourite commentator. Dr. Scott, gives his voice against 
your deduction, in the most explicit language — 

''And yet, facts undeniably show, that men venture 
on sin, even with the threatening of everlasting misery 
sounding in their ears ; nay, with the tremhling appre- 
hension of it DISMAYING THEIR HEARTS ; for diviuC, 

as well as human laws, are weak through the flesh, 
and with all their sanctions and barriers, are unable 
to affix boundaries to the swelling tide of human de- 
pravity." 



CANDID REVIEW. 



19 



On the present occasion, no other authority need be 
quoted. He has not given an opinion on the subject, 
he appeals to undeniable facts^ and in whatever hght 
you view it, the assertion which you make h proved 
untrue by those of your own creed. If Mr. Scott ut- 
tered a falsehood, which every man of observation 
know^s he did not, this very circumstance as fully re- 
futes your assertion, as the admission of his statement. 
Take w^hich horn of this dilemma you dee^m most ex- 
pedient ; either destroys your premises and the con- 
clusion they were intended to support vanishes into 
thin air. 

In thus summarily destroying both your premises 
and conclusion, the pledge made in my two first state- 
ments has been redeemed. If the dreadful fears of 
future torment do not drive men to heaven, nor cause 
them to be virtuous, your reasons are at best, nugato- 
ry. Admitting your unsupported assertions respect- 
ing the conduct of professed Universalists to be true, 
(which would be a sweeping concession) your own 
principles would thereby gain nothing. Even such a 
wholesale admission would bring us merely on a lev- 
el ; a small step, indeed, towards the establishment of 
your tenets. But it is yet to be proved that the effects 
of a belief in the final holiness and happiness of all 
men, leads to the same horrid immoralities as shall 
yet be fastened on those of your creed, by the most 
unquestioned and unquestionable authority. 

I shall close this number by a brief survey of the 
nondescript argument found in the last paragraph of 
your first letter. 

" What motive can you have for embracing the doc- 
trine of universal salvation ? If it be true, you have 
nothing to fear from rejecting it ; but if it be false, you 
have every thing to fear from embracing it. Disbe- 
lieving the doctrine can do you no harm ; but believing 
it may do you infinite injury." 



20 



CANDID REVIEW. 



To this question it is answered, because the belief 
in this doctrine gives peace and joy ; and because we 
who beheve, enter into rest, by being satisfied that he 
without whom a sparrow falls not to the ground, is ful- 
ly able, and will finally bring into the one fold, all the 
erring children of men, who are of more value than 
many sparrows. The ifs and buls which follow the 
question, are too contemptible quibbles for sober in- 
vestigation. 

If this apology for an argument be any thing more 
or less than a 6ar to inquiry^ and a bait for hypocrites^ 
I will confess my inability to comprehend it. If it 
should prove true — it is of no possible consequence to 
doubt it, although truth is allowed to be the first point 
of inquiry. The belief of a lie is therefore preferable 
to a belief of the truth, unless the truth should happen 
to be in orthodox hands. From such subterfuges, such 
hiding places for distressed argument, such sublima- 
ted iionsense, let every man who has independence of 
mihfl, turn in disgust. 

Yours, 

CANDIDUSe 

NO. 2. 

To Rev. Joel Hawes^ — Hartford. 

Sir — It is a needless, as it would certainly be an 
irksome task to follow you through the wilderness of 
unsupported assertions, bold assumptions, and sophis- 
tical deductions which you have made. No man of 
ingenuous feelings, but must condemn the method 
which you have adopted, to enlist the prejudices of the 
ignorant and the indolent, by a repetition of the cant 
language of the ill-informed and the malicious, and the 



CANDID REVIEW. 21 



adoption of the most puerile reasoning, and self-de- 
stroying conclusions. 

It has been said, that ''inconsistency is a badge of 
error." The maxim appears self-evident — it is ac- 
knoweged by you in charging the Universalists with 
inconsistency, and with having "no uniform charac- 
ter.'' I shall examine a portion of your statements, 
by comparing them with others, and with scripture 
testimony. Should they bear this test, I am a false ac- 
cuser. 

You say — come what will in the future world, it 
will be well with the righteous.'" If by the righteous 
3^ou mean the saved, as I presume you do, let us hear 
your ideas of salvation. 

If men are punished in the present life according 
to their deserts, then Universalism is false. This as- 
serts that all men are saved. Saved from what ? 
From nothing, if they endure the full penalty of the 
IdiW. It is absurd to talk of men as experiencing sal- 
vation, after they have received all the punishment 
due for their offences, and have thereby fully satisfied 
the demands of divine justice. Free punishment and 
free salvation are totally inconsistent wdth each other. 
Which then will the Universalist assert ? If he says 
all are freely saved, then none are punished as they 
deserve ; and if not punished in this life, they may 
justly be in the life to come." 

I have perused and re-perused this quotation for the 
purpose of rescuing it, if possible, from the ridiculous 
consequences which it clearly involves. According to 
my understanding, this paragraph imports, that if men 
are punished in this life according to their deserts^ they 
must also be punished in the life to come ; for you as- 
sert, that they can be saved " from nothing, if they 
endure the full penalty of the law." You again say, 
that those who are freely saved, are not " punished 
as they deserve ; and if not punished in this life, they 



22 



CANDID REVIEW. 



may justly be in the life to come.^' The query is now 
proper — How do you know that come what will in 
the future world, it will be well with the righteous?'' 
You have laid down the principle, that the saved, are 
freelxf saved — and saved, too, from the consequences 
threatened against transgressors* On your own sys- 
tem, then, if they are not punished in this life, they 
may justly be in the life to come. I ask now for the 
safety of your saved^ who ,^ not suffering in this world 
according to their malefactions, as you say they do not, 
are exposed jW^/t/ to suffer for them in the life to come. 
Whether God will exhibit /e^^ justice in the future, 
than in the present life, is left for you to answer. 
Your words are these. 

''Now let me ask, is there any such distinction 
made between the righteous and the wicked in the 
present life, as is implied in the character of God as a 
rewarder 

Not only do you here deny, in the most express 
terms, that the wicked are punished in this life, but 
the argument which you would deduce from the state- 
ment is, that in the future world, the vicious will expe- 
rience the unmitigated vengeance of an incensed, om- 
nipotent Jehovah. But did you foresee the conse- 
quences of your unsupported statement ? You exhibit 
the strongest repugnance to that meaning of the term 
salvation, which merely signifies deliverance from 
thepower^ and not from the curse of sin.'' If by the 
curse of sin you mean the penalty threatened to the 
disobedient, where are your sanctions ? The thun- 
ders of Mount Sinai, ''the intimations of conscience, 
and the natural apprehensions of men,'' which at times 
you hold out as motives for obedience, are reduced to 
the whispering zephyr of a summer evening. But for 
what purpose do you c^er hold them up to the gaze of 
tnen ? is it to make them virtuous ? You represent a 
life of virtue as a life of suffering, and a life of vice^as 



CANDID REVIEW. 



23 



a life of pleasure. Nor this alone. Your ipse dixit 
has ah'eady decided, that the virtuous cannot be saved, 
as " it is absurd to talk of men as experiencing salva- 
tion, after they have received all the punishment due 
for their offences." But are not all men sinners ? In 
contrasting the happy effects of vice, and the misera- 
ble effects of virtue, in this hfe, either the righteous 
have, or have not received for their demerits \ or were 
they never sinners ? If they have — if suffering be me- 
ted to them in this world, it must be in the coming, on 
your own hypothesis. If they have not been reward- 
ed, or punished, in the present world, the justice of 
God may find them out in the coming. In one case, 
they ar^ hopeless— in the other, a peradventure> a 
mayhap, of still suffering the due demerit of their sins, 
hangs like a portentous cloud over their future pros- 
pects. Take the sentiment v/hich way you will, and 
if it make any christians, they must be gloomy, doubt- 
ing christians, and "he that doubteth is damned,'' or 
in perplexity, dread, and frequently in despair. 

If, then, on your own scheme, salvation cannot be 
experienced but by hell-deserving wretches, and those 
who are saved, are unjustly saved, the contingency is 
in favour of the sinner, and those who heartily believe 
in your theory, have no possible motive to become 
virtuous. If to be saved, their demerits must entitle 
them to suffer in regions of hopeless despair — and if a 
life of virtue in this world lead only to a bed of thorns ; 
what nameable cause, either in this or a coming worlds 
offers a solitary motive to virtue ? 

You have written a long paragraph in the face of 
scripture, and daily observation, to maintain the doc- 
trine of future retribution, as a deduction from your 
proposition^ that virtue does not bring its own reward 
here, and that vice does not, and cannot, receive the 
penalty attached to the breach of God's law in the 
present state. If your argument be goody it will bear 



24 



CANDID REVIEW. 



carrying to its legitimate result. If sin produce hap- 
piness in this life, it proceeds spontaneously, and as a 
necessary effect, from the principle of disobedience ; 
in which case the restraint was opposed to the crea- 
ture ^s happiness ; or, God tacitly gives countenance 
to the infraction of his law, by rewarding, on the spot, 
every law-breaker. If the former be true, and prin- 
ciple is eternal,^' the same effects will most certainly 
follow this cause, in whatever world we may be placed. 
If the latter be true, then God must change, or he will 
always thus reward the transgressor, and thereby re- 
duce his law to a mere nullity ; an orthodox quibble, 
as you have represented it. I shall close this subject 
for the present, by the application of an invention, 
or an adopted form of speech, found in your ninth 
Letter. 

" Look at facts. Has not sin existed on earth for 
six thousand years ; and multiplied sorrow, and pain, 
and death, to an almost inconceivable extent ? Is all 
this consistent with the goodness of God ? No Univer- 
salist, I suppose, will deny that it is. How then does 
he know that misery in the future world is not con- 
sistent with the same goodness? Guilty men in the 
present life endure a great amount of suffering: — 
why then may they not endure the same in the life to 
come 

Now, Sir, will you be pleased to look at your 
facts You state as fact, in the form of a question, 
*' are not the recompenses made to either class in the 
present state, very imperfect, and far from correspond- 
ing with their respective characters ?" Here is a most 
excellent opportunity for the display of your [orthodox] 
logic. " Is all this consistent with the goodness of 
God?'' No Calvinist, I suppose, will deny that it is. 
How then does he know that — " the recompenses 
made to either class, in \he future state'' will not also 
be " very imperfect, and far from corresponding with 



CANDID REVIEW. 



25 



their respective characters If you can consistently 
shake off this sophistical and fallacious conclusion from 
your own premises, in this case^ perhaps you will not 
forget, that an argument which proves too much, is far 
more hazardous than silence. 

It occurs to me at the moment of writing, that in 
speaking of the safety of the righteous in a future life, 
you did not dwell on the modus operandi by which 
they have obtained, or will obtain, this character. If 
on the Calvinistic plan, (and surely you profess Gal- 
vinistic principles) it must be by sovereign, irresistible, 
discriminating grace ; by imputing to them, as sinners ^ 
a righteousness to which they have not the shadow of 
a title. You must accede to this, or renounce every 
pretension to consistency, and to Calvinism also. If 
then, " without the least foresight of faith or good 
works,*" — God having, out of his mere good pleasure, 
from all eternity elected some to everlasting life," 
will bestow the blessedness of a happy immortality on 
them, while his wrath will crush all the non-elect ; 
perhaps we may be informed what their righteous- 
ness had to do in this affair, which had been pre-de- 
termined " from all eternity.'' If you wrote the quo- 
tation as an Arminian, permit me to inquire once 
more, in your own words, " from what are they sa- 
ved V 

A few words more, in the way of interrogation. In 
polemics, do you " hold a language pubhc, and a Ian 
guage confidential?*" Do you maintain that any are 
saved for their works ? and if so, from what are they 
saved ? and are they on a different footing in realms 
of blessedness, from those who are saved from deserv- 
ed punishment, because God chose to save them ? 
and if one individual be saved in opposition to the de- 
mands of justice, why will not all be saved on the 
same unjust principle ? And, if one be saved on this 
principle, the intimations of conscience, and the 

3 



S6 



CANDID REVIEW. 



threats of punishment, of which you consider the Bi- 
ble so full, are mere sounding brass, or a tinlding 
cymbal.''' 

I shall now introduce to your notice a whole para- 
graph from your ninth letter. 

I am aw^are of the quibble of Universalists re- 
specting the meaning of the term salvation. They 
would have us understand that salvation means, only 
deliverance from the power, not from the curse of sin. 
According to them, there is no forgiveness with God. 
Every man who sins is punished to the full extent of 
his guilt. And if he is saved, it is not from the pen- 
alty of the law, which takes its course with every 
offender, but from the dominion of a sinful temper or 
a depraved heart. But what says the Bible ? Does 
that explain salvation to mean, simply, deliverance 
from the power of sin ? Is all that it says of justifica- 
tion, of forgiveness, of pardon, of remission of sin, 
without meaning? Do the scriptures, after all that 
has been said and sung on the Heavenly theme, give 
us no idea of a pardoning, forgiving, justifying 
God ? I forbear to give a formal definition of these 
terms. I feel that it would be insulting your under- 
standing. Their true meaning is understood by every 
child who is capable of reading his Bible. Forgive- 
ness is remission of penalty ; pardon is deliverance of 
the guilty from the due punishment of their sins ; and 
to explain these terms, as do the Universalists, to de- 
note only freedom from the power of sin, furnishes a 
notable example of the facility with which they wrest 
scripture, and pervert the plainest words of the lan- 
guage," ' 

As you appear to be so well aware of the quib- 
ble of Universalists, respecting the meaning of the 
term salvation," it might have done no harm to the 
cause of truth, had you quoted a passage from Mat- 
thew, containing ihOr foundation of this quibble.--^ 



CANDID REVIEW, 



27 



Tliou shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his 
people FROM THEIR SINS.'' Is this quibbhng? or 
rather is it not quibbling to hold forth the terrors of a 
future heltibr the promotion of love to God, and vir- 
tuous actions here, while you aver that the saved are 
absolved from the very sufferings which you have de- 
nounced ? It is certainly a little remarkable, that one 
who apparently triumphs in scripture authority for his 
assertions, and vauntingly inquires, But what says 
the Bible should, after all, forget to quote a single 
word from it in support of his bare, his barren asser-*-- 
tions. In so long a paragraph, containing so many 
assumptions, surely a small mixture of Bible, even if it 
were mutilated, might be faii'ly expected. But not 
one word of this appears. Your extreme sensibility 
prevents you from giving " a formal definition of 
these terms. " I feel that it would be insulting your 
understanding ? Their true meaning is understood by 
every child who is capable of reading his Bible.'' I 
ask now in my turn, " But what says the Bible ?'' 
Ans. "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saitli 
your God ; speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and 
cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that 
her iniquity is pardoned : for she hath received of the 
LORD'S hand double for all her sins."— Isa. 40 : 
1, 2, 

Now, sir, if you can read your Bible, will you be 
pleased to answer the question to yourself. Is pardon 
" deliverance of the guilty from the due punishment 
of their sins ?'' Should you wish to learn further 
what the Bible says, it shall be at your service. Let 
the community judge who perverts " the plainest 
words in the language.'' 

In examining your second letter, I find so much 
generalizing^ so much indefinite and common-place 
assertion, with no small share of the leaven of sophis- 
try, that it may with propriety be considered as a« 



28 



CANDID REVIEW. 



mong the incurables. I shall now notice but one ex- 
pression. 

" As to the doctrine being opposed by the prejudi- 
ces of men, this is so far from true, that it is every 
way adapted to please and gratify the desires of the 
natural heart/' 

Do you really believe, that when Mr. Murray was 
stoned in Boston for delivering his message of Peace 
on earth, and good will towards men, a total destitu- 
tion of prejudice was the cause? If so, the aggres- 
sors had most w^matural hearts. 

Speaking of the consequences of the doctrine, ydu 
say ; ^ 

It denies the mercy of God, and sinks the grace of 
the gospel into an empty parade of high sounding 
words. It is asserted by Universalists that the 
*' wicked receive a ^nm^\\meni proportioned to i\\eiv 
crimes, — that all the hell there is, is inevitably cer- 
tain to the wicked," — " their portion in the lake of 
fire and brimstone, in the sorrows of death and pains 
of hell, is and ever will be in exact ratio to the mea- 
sure and magnitude of sin." 

We are pretty uniformly accused of granting too 
much mercy to the Creator. But we understand mer- 
cy as perfectly consistent with justice, and not opposed 
to it. 

" Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth merc v — for — 
thou renderest to every man according to his work.'' 
Do we deny the mercy of God, in the afflictive dis- 
pensations of his Providence, intended to promote our 
good, and bring us back from the wilderness of error, 
to the paths of virtue and peace ? If we do, the pro- 
phets and apostles are most deeply implicated in the 
charge, and you are at liberty to consider them 
" either incapable or dishonest," as you deem othex^ 
Universahsts* 



CANDID REVIEW. 



29 



We do say, indeed, that the wicked receive a 
punishment proportioned to their crimes and Jesus 
Christ, and his apostles, taught the same doctrine.— 
Christ informs us, that with what measure we mete, 
it shall be measured to overflowing, and that the mea- 
sure shall be rendered by men into our bosoms. Nor 
are the writings of the apostles silent on the subject. 
We learn of them, that every man shall be recom= 
pensed, without respect of persons ; and that he who 
soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption 
— not incorruptible fire and brimstone. If what we 
sow we shall reap, where shall we reap it — in the 
field where it is sown, or in a distant region where we 
have not sown, and whcit we have not sown ? But 
perhaps I am perverting " the plainest words in our 
language/' 

I shall now transcribe a small paragraph from your 
third letter, in the way of comparison. It is not 
brought merely to exhibit the tissue of contradictory 
assertions with which your Letters abound, though 
that is sufiiciently obvious, but to give another con- 
clusive proof, that error and inconsistency are cause 
and consequence. 

"Those persons who have been awakened to a 
sense of their guilt and danger, and as often relapsed 
into a stupid, or irreligious state, and who are annoy- 
ed always and irritated by the doctrines of grace, are 
much inclined to seek rest at the universahst's meet= 
ing, and there get their consciences quieted by hear- 
ing that there is no day of judgment, and no punish- 
ment for the wicked." 

" Doctrines of grace", — Yes ; and yet, come what 
will in the future world, it will be well with the right- 
eous, though, according to the doctrines of grace, "if 
they are not elected, they must indeed perish." But 
doctrines of grace, and day of judgment — punishment 
for the wicked — all — all in the same paragraph ? tru-*^ 



\ 



30 CANDID REVIEW. 

ly this is astonishing. Is it true, to the non-elect the 
entrance into life is blocked up, and that they were 
reprobated "from all eternity,'' and yet must they 
suffer as wicked^ when they were predestined, not 
merely to sin, but forced to sin that they might justly 
be punished Leaving this absurdity, let us try for 
once, to find a point to your declamatory paragraph. 
You assert that some get their consciences quieted 
by hearing that there is no day of judgment, and no 
punishment for sinners,'' and all this at a universahst 
meeting house ! Perhaps you can name the place, or 
the speaker, where, and of whom, this is true, but it 
looks too much like an attempt to throw the odium of 
inconsistency upon Universalists, which shall be writ- 
ten in capitals on your production. We do not deny 
a day of judgment, but we speak of it as being simul- 
taneous with the preaching of the gospel. Judgment 
is decision, a judicial sentence, and when this occurs, 
it is that man's day of judgment who is judged, or 
punished. If we do really hold the doctrine that 
there is " no punishment for the wicked," it is a little 
singular, that you should dwell so long on the impossi- 
bility of saving one who has been sufficiently punish- 
ed. It is certainly a singular charge to bring against 
us, that we deny punishment for sin, while you say 
that those only, who are not punished, can be saved ; 
while the recipients of salvation, who have not been 
punished in this world, may justly be in the coming 
world ! Such appears to be your zeal in contradicting 
Universal Salvation, that you have run into the oppo- 
site extreme of universal damnation. 

To you, who are so perfectly familiar with incon- 
sistency in theory, it may not be necessary to make an 
apology, but I feel myself in duty bound to render a 
reason for obtruding another ' badge of error' upon 
the reader's notice. Mr. Scott, the commentatoi^, says, 
A very small proportion of men's actions is directed 



CANDID REVIEW. 



31 



by personal knowledge, demonstration, or by the 
higher degrees of probability.'' It is a maxim which 
daily observation verifies, and it is therefore I would 
press the inconsistency of your assertions home to the 
business and bosom of every one, who has a mind to 
understand, and a heart to feel. The quotation to 
which I allude is the following ; 

" If the righteous and the wicked are to fare alike 
in the future world, why is salvation always promised 
conditionally 

And on this principle, I must say that although 
those passages which either directly, or by implication, 
teach that future happiness is suspended on present 
conduct, and is to be attained only by compliance 
with certain specified conditions, appear to me en- 
tirely unmeaning and absurd.'' 

If, after what has already been advanced, any thing 
found in your letters should be able to furnish matter 
of astonishment, it is the utter incoherence of the pre- 
sent declarations, compared with others heretofore 
cited. That salvation is always promised condition- 
ally, is precisely as consistent with your definition of 
the nature of salvation, and the signification of par- 
don, and forgiveness, as to say that the sun emits 
light and darkness, or that all the parts of a body are 
not equal to the whole. By your own rule of argu- 
ment, it is absurd to speak of salvation, as being ex- 
perienced by one who is not obnoxious to punish- 
ment ; but is the law against the obedient ? If man 
be obnoxious to punishment, and salvation be deliv- 
erance from punishment, or the curse of sin, then con- 
ditions must be out of the argument, or he saves him- 
self by compliance, in which case deliverance of the 
guilty can have nothing to do with the subject. Any 
other conclusion renders language more vague than 
the Delphic Oracle. Whether the course which you 
have pursued, in the zigzag windings of modern or 



^2 



CANDID REVIEW. 



thodoxy, is intended to darken counsel by words 
without knowledge," will be left to others to decide, 
when we have closed the subject. 

Yours, 

CANDIDUS, 

HO. 3. 

To Rev. Joel Hawes^ — Hartford, 

Sir, — If you are fully persuaded that the chief sup- 
port of your system rests on profane and old wives' 
fables, or the equally vague and fluctuating traditions 
of men, you have certainly exhibited a happy speci- 
men of sincerity in the composition of your Letters. 
The course which you have taken testifies in a voice 
louder and more definite than words, that the scrip- 
tures are not considered as the first, or most important 
test of opinion. 

But, Sir, I will now inquire, if this be the touch- 
stone to which protestants have at length returned ? 
After abjuring the supremacy and infallibility of the 
Pope, and professing to take the written word as the 
man of our counsel, and the unerring rule of faith and 
practice, have we merely changed masters ? Whatev- 
er may be the inference, the fact is obvious, that the 
major part of your reasons., as they are termed, are 
drawn from sources entirely distinct from the Bible* 
Those who have read the subject of these remarks 
with care, know this to be the fact, and are at liber- 
ty to estimate the value of such extraneous testimony. 

On examining some of your dogmatical assumptions, 
a thought has occurred, which may be as well express- 
ed here as in any other place. Each person accused 
of malefactions of the deepest die, is considered inno- 



CANDID REVIEW. 



33 



cent in the eye of the law, until the proof of his guilt 
shall not admit a rational doubt. Nor is this all his 
privilege ; even when an overwhelming majority in 
the community has decided on his criminality, he has 
a right at his trial to challenge each person on his oath, 
and is allowed counsel, whose honour is pledged to 
use their best services in behalf of their client, under 
all these disadvantages, and in the very face of the 
popular current, whatever be its origin ; and wo betide 
the court or jury who dare to infringe on his rights, or 
condemn him, until the allegations are proved. But 
these are the immunities granted by the world's peo- 
ple ; ecclesiastical tribunals manage concerns in their 
province diflerently. A single man in these courts, 
usurps the ofrices of accuser, public prosecutor, jury, 
and judge ; and the accused is never acquitted, for the 
precedings are entirely ex parte. 

One of these anomalies in judicial proceedings is 
found in your third letter, the purport of which is as 
follows : 

If then we find that any system of doctrine is gene- 
rally embraced by the wicked, and rejected by the 
righteous, we have strong presumptive evidences that 
the system is false.*" 

To clinch this presumptive evidence" against 
Universalists, it is stated that good men cannot op- 
pose the plain doctrines of the Bible," and that the 
heresy of Universalism is ''embraced chiefly, if not 
only, by those whom the Bible denominates the wick- 
ed." But this charge appears rather too general for 
your purpose ; hence you condescend to particularize 
a few of the minutia in the following words : 

The profane swearers in a town or city, together 
with those who are accustomed to neglect public wor- 
ship and violate the Sabbath by business or, amuse- 
ments, will become diligent in their attendance upon 
the worship which is conducted by preachers of uni- 
versal salvation. 



34 



CANDID REVIEW. 



If there are any persons in the community who 
are unfaithful in the conjugal relation, and who are ac- 
customed to ''drink stolen waters as sweeter than 
their own — these are usually much pleased to hear 
that there is no hell, and that adulterers shall inherit 
the kingdom of God. 

I have noticed, also, that intemperate persons are 
generally very ready to turn out, when the doctrine 
of universal salvation is preached near them, and 
hear with much satisfaction, that the path of the drunk- 
ard leads as directly to heaven as the path of the 
just. 

Another portion of the audience of a universalist 
preacher is commonly made up of young men and boys 
of loose habits. Those '' whose feet,^' according to 
the Bible, " go down to death, and whose steps take 
hold on hell,^' delight to hear it proved that the Bible 
lies, and that fornicators shall inherit the kingdom of 
God.'' 

Here then are the allegations against us in extenso. 
Profane swearers, adulterers, the intemperate, and 
young men of loose habits, chiefly, if not exclusively, 
compose the audience of a Universalist preacher! 
And what do they hear in the place where ''worship 
is conducted by preachers of universal salvation?" 
By your account they hear " that there is no hell, and 
that adulterers shall inherit the kingdom of God 
And further ; " that the path of the drunkard leads as 
directly to heaven as the path of the just besides 
which the audience are " delighted to hear it proved 
[jes^ proved!]^ that the Bible lies ; and that fornicators 
shall inherit the kingdom of God These, are in- 
deed, heavy charges, but as suspicion, or even decla- 
mation is proof in your estimation, we have nothing to 
do but suffer the irreversible sentence. You sink 
Universalists to a hell of inexpressible suffering in 
another world, and there on your hypothesis, " the 



CANDID REVIEW. 



35 



Bible leaves them." Truly, this is a laconic proce- 
dure, and as summary as could be desired by the most 
sanguinary court martial. 

But we shall offer a reason ^'why sentence should 
hot be executed/' The allegations are not proved. 
Your description of the audience and the preaching 
are not true. You have indeed said, that Let the 
doctrine be preached in any populous place, and the 
following facts will be witnessed viz. the circum- 
stances just enumerated. This, Sir, is one of the 
populous places where the doctrine of God'^s equal 
and universal goodness is promulgated, and here is the 
place in which you can commence proceedings against 
the monster Universalism, which, in the act of turning 
'*the world upside down," has ^'come hither also." 
You are invited, nay, challenged, to maintain the above 
barefaced assertions, which you must either support, 
or submit to the odium of a false accuser. 

If the character of the audience is half as bad as you 
have represented, surely some of " those who, accord- 
ing to the Bible, give the best evidence of piety,'' will 
volunteer their testimony, in addition to your ipse dixit^ 
which is given anonymously. 

But how is it possible, that in this land of steady 
habits, whose moral and religious character has been 
raised to the highest niche in the temple of fame 
through the instrumentality of your denomination, I 
say, how is it possible, that in a place of such pure 
morals, preaching is permitted, nay, encouraged, which 
is calculated to perpetuate such a catalogue of scanda- 
lous vices as you have imputed to the majority of the 
audience ? Really, sir, you appear to have verified 
the truth of a certain poet : 

Not one looks backward, onward still he g-oes, 
Yet ne'er looks J'orwurd^ further than his nose.'' 



36 



CANDID REVIEW. 



A spice of the principle, which directs to lie well 
for the truth,'' and considers every thing both lawful 
and expedient, which is presumed by rehgionists as 
tending to the glory of God and the good of the 
church,'' is fairly discovered through ail this proceed- 
ing. Precisely such conduct has been constantly 
imputed to the Romish church by dissenters from har 
faith. 

Your allegations have not retained the form of opin- 
ion ; you say, the following facts will be noticed;'' 
if they are facts, they must be of public notoriety, and 
easily proved. But on what do you rely for proof? 
It is too late to withdraw, or quibble, by saying that 
such characters are attached to a portion of the audi- 
ence ; the sense of your assertions is irrevocably fixed 
by your own declarations, which may be seen in the 
following quotation : 

It is not the bad conduct of a few individuals, in 
any denomination of christians, that proves any thing 
on either side. It is the conduct of the general body 
from which we ought to form our estimate." And 
brought to this test, universalism must be pronounced 
a system of licentious tendency." 

There is not, there cannot be, any mistake in this 
matter. — By the use of 3. petitio principii^ or taking 
for granted what you are bound to prove, you have 
convicted and condemned, both the speaker and his 
hearers, en masse. You have advanced as sentiments 
taught from the pulpit, that which is an absolute^ un- 
qualified, FALSEHOOD ; and whatever impunity 
you may expect from your office, depend upon it, 
when you commit spiritual wickedness in high 
places,'' you shall in no wise escape. — We have no 
exclusive pretensions to superlative piety, nor do we 
claim a prescriptive right to all the truth, and talent, 
and virtue, in the state ; but you may be compelled 
to learn, however reluctant, that a minority has rights. 



CANDID REVIEW, 



37 



and that on those rights is inscribed nemo me impune 
lacessit. 

An appeal to your candour must be nugatory ; if 
you possess any, Universahsts and Universahsm are 
excluded from its benefits ; but the candid of any de- 
nomination, who dare to judge by facts, may decide 
for themselves, whether those who compose our con- 
gregation, male and female, do, or do not, possess as 
much integrity, as much of the Christian temper, as 
much of the courtesies of civilized life, are as temper- 
ate, and as good and constant husbands and wives, as 
those, not merely of your congregation, but of your 
church. Facts 7night be given which would decide 
this question at once. 

Are none to be found in our ranks who visit the 
fatherless and widows in their affliction, and in whose 
hearts love to God and man is a living, an active prin« 
ciple ? We desire not to boast ; but what say the 
suffrages of your citizens? Have no instances, or 
rather have not instances in abundance, testified the 
confidence of society in their integrity, their respon- 
sibility ? Facts, indeed, are stubborn things. 

In relation to those whom you represent as com« 
posing the chief, or only hearers, at a Universalist 
meeting, the selection of Bible saints,^' by way of 
contrast, is certainly a little unfortunate. Noah is 
represented as building the Ark because he was not a 
Universalist ; but he was drunken, unless " the Bible 
lies,'' and you ^dtj the intemperate forma /ar^e por- 
tion of the audience of a UniversaHst preacher. Lot 
is also brought forward as an example of one in oppo= 
tion to a whole city of Universahsts, viz. Sodom.— 
The Bible says, respecting this opposer of Universal^ 
ism, " thus were both the daughters of Lot with child 
by their father,'^ O temporal mores! How as- 
tonishingly do the Bible saints differ from their degen- 
erate offspring ! Now^ all the vagabonds in society 

4 



38 



CANDID REVIEW. 



are' Universalists, forsooth, and vice versa ; for, by 
your logic, all the Universalists, are vagabonds, and 
for any thing which appears to the contrary, are not a 
whit better than their opposers were^ in former times. 
The moral humours of the body politic and corpo- 
rate,'' which have been gathering for centuries, seem 
to be concentrating for an explosion, the result of 
which may be more dreadful to modern Universalists, 
than the flood, and the fire, were to the ancient. 

Perhaps, sir, you have seen a book, purporting to 
be a refutation of Universalism, written by one Ros- 
well J'udson. Perhaps you do not know that the au- 
thor of that book peddles it round the country for 
liquor, on which he becomes so intoxicated, as to be a 
public nuisance. Perchance you do know how xt^arm- 
ly this book was recommended by the orthodox, who 
had not read the Lectures which it is intended to re- 
fute but it is not to be presumed that you know, 
that one of these recommending gentlemen has an or- 
thodox son, who stood for the hideous picture of Uni- 
versalism which is said to be daily presented to the 
view of this very feeling father. Yet such are incon- 
trovertible facts, the inference is to be drawn by your- 
self. 

But it may not be necessary to attend to these mat- 
ters of fact in detail, as belonging merely to the audi- 
ence. Another method will be first attempted. 

If a successful turning of the tables on an opponent 
be considered as a complete triumph, the present op- 
portunity shall not be neglected. The leaders of or- 
thodoxy shall come in for a full share of the odium 
which you represent as belonging to us. When the 
continuance of such people as teachers, or employing 
them with a known bad character, is indicative of a 
pious audience^ then a tree is no longer to be judged 
by its fruit. 



CANDID REVIEW. 



39 



Within a few years, a city, within 100 miles of 
Hartford, containing 14,000 inhabitants, has witness- 
ed the disgrace of six clergymen, at least, (all sturdy 
believers in eternal damnation) for gross immoralities, 
and some of them after being discarded from other 
societies on account of their crimes. One of these 
has lately been ejected from the third society in which 
his intemperance has been repeatedly witnessed. He 
was certainly expelled from one, and it is believed 
from two Presbyteries, for the same allegation. But I 
have no wish to exhume the frailties of the dead, 
more particularly of those who were our contempora- 
ries. Another of these, after repeated hearings by a 
Presbytery, or clergymen deputed for the purpose, 
was silenced as a contirmed drunkard. The remain- 
der were guilty of the most flagrant lasciviousness ; 
one of a clandestine elopement with another man's 
wife ; another of the seduction of a young female un- 
der his protection ; the latter of whom has lately ap- 
peared in the public papers as a forger of notes, a 
swindler, who has fled to escape the state prison. — - 
This person was a most violent opposer of Universal- 
ists. — The next confessed, that he had lived in a state 
of the most indiscriminate intercourse with the vilest 
of the community for eight or ten years, and the 
other was dismissed for the most obvious licentious 
conduct. 

But it can hardly be necessary to recapitulate the 
facts which stand out in bold rehef against those in 
the front ranks of orthodoxy, merely to repel a charge, 
which, with a man of sense, carries its own refutation 
on its front. The charge, if true, is as directly made 
on the whole community, and especially on the con- 
servators of the public peace, as on Universalists. If 
an overwhelming majority of the orthodox permit such 
preaching as you impute to us, theirs is the fault. — - 
You know that it has not been uttered in this place ; 



40 CANDID REVIEW. 



you know that if a wretch were found, who dared to 
utter such stuff, — he would be amenable to the majes- 
ty of the laws. 

Intimately connected with this subject is another, 
to which we will now attend. You have written con- 
siderable, evincing much solicitude for your favourite 
principle, that a fear of future misery is the efficient 
sanction of God's law ; an almost certain bar to diso- 
bedience. The mode in which you have chosen to 
maintain this, is by substituting your own dreams in 
the room of facts. By reasoning on these figments of 
the imagination, as consequences flowing from given 
causes, you have attempted to prove a posteriori, that 
the cause is good or bad, as prejudice or passion might 
dictate. As you have laid so much stress n^onfear 
as the basis of morals and religion, and depend so 
much on alleged facts in support of your premises, 
the subject may as well be examined now as ever ; 
let us then revert to the effect produced by this fear, 
appealing to historical facts, and the acknowledgments 
of its advocates. 

That the fear of endless punishment, as the conse- 
quence of sin, is the broad principle on which you 
found the practice of virtue, in this world, and the 
possession of happiness in the next, is evident. Sects 
differing in name, which hold this principle in com- 
mon, have all the advantages deduced from it in their 
favour, if the premises are correct, and on this broad 
principle it will first be examined. 

It will be conceded that the Romish Church is not a 
whit behind the Protestant in this pespect. Indeed, 
as a body, they are more explicit in their denuncia- 
tions on transgressors than the Protestants. What 
now is the history of that church ? It is written with 
the blood of persecution. It is needless to specify par- 
ticulars. History records more than fifty millions of 
victims to the Holy Catholic Church. Massacres and 



CANDID REVIEW. 



41 



assassinations too numerous and too horrid to relate 
are the dreadful, concomitants of this belief in that 
church. Centuries have witnessed her violations of 
every principle of honour, humanity, and virtue — her 
own historians acknowledge it, and the Protestant 
church has long resounded with anathemas on her 
head as the mother of harlots, and abominations of 
the earth. No proof is here needed, nor will a pro- 
fessed Protestant utter a dissenting voice, unless it be 
to the deductions. 

But some eminent and excellent members of that 
church, give a faint relief to the dreadful picture. — ■ 
With these exceptions, a whole church stands as a 
beacon to others professing the same fundamental 
doctrine. But, heart-chilling as is the picture of this 
church, the same features are distinguishable in the 
Protestant. From her own history, and the acknow- 
ledgments of her children, will the facts in support of 
my argument be drawn. 

To begin with a celebrated Reformer, from whom 
your denomination claims its origin. He was a big- 
oted, intolerant, persecutor and murderer. Mr. Ben- 
edict, the Baptist historian — a Trinitarian Calvinist^ 
thus writes : 

A multitude of testimonies go to prove that Calvin 
was at the head of this murderous affair.-' [The 
burning of Servetus, as an anti-Trinitarian.] But 
omitting all others, I will transcribe part of a letter to 
the Marquis Pact, high chamberlain to the King of 
Navarre. " Honour, glory, and riches, shall be the 
reward of your pains ; but above all, do not fail to rid 
the country of those scoundrels, who stir up the peo- 
ple to revolt against us. Such monsters should be ex« 
terminated, as / have exterminated Michael Servetus^ 
the Spaniard." 

I am fully aware that it will be objected, this was a 
soUtary instance. It is not necessary to prove that 

4^ 



42 



CANDID REVIEW. 



every believer in endless torments is a murderer and 
a persecutor, nor that the Protestant church has 
drunk the blood of saints and martyrs to the same ex- 
tent as the mother church ; but if it be evident that 
the same spirit of persecution has reigned to the pre- 
sent time, and that circumstances have in some mea- 
sure prevented its baleful etiects, the object is accom- 
phshed. 

Stupidly, and obstinately perverse must that man 
be, who doubts that the reign of the Protestant queen 
Elizabeth, was equally as sanguinary as that of 

bloody Mary,'' the Cathohc. As many Catholics, 
perhaps, did not suffer martyrdom under her auspices, 
as under those of Mary ; but the spirit of persecution 
was as relentless, as intolerant. 

But, nearer to our own times, what was the state of 
religious toleration, even in England ? Did not our 
fathers flee from Protestant persecution, and did they 
not become persecutors of Catholics, Episcopalians, 
Quakers, Baptists, Adamites, and all who did not 
adopt their faith, the moment they had power? — 
These facts are too notorious to need proof, or to re- 
quire a protracted comment. Perhaps, however, an 
avenue to escape from the conclusions may be de- 
vised ; though I see not the manner of effecting it, un- 
less it be, by justifying Protestant persecution, as 

easier and pleasanter'' than Popish. 

Let us now look at the confessions of the primitive 
Reformers, respecting the general influence of a 
change from popery, Luther, — " We see, that, 
through the mahce of the devil, men are now more 
avaricious, more cruel, more disorderly, more inso- 
lent, and much more wicked^ than they were under 
popery. Again, I am burnt with the flames of my 
untamed flesh ; I am mad almost with the rage of lust. 
-x^ % % % % I who ought to be fervent in spirit, am fer- 
vent in impurity. * * * * I yield not in pride, either 



CANDID REVIEW. 



43 



to the emperor, prince, or devil.''' But a fair judg- 
ment caa be made of the morahtj of the times, when 
Lather, Melancthon, Bucer, and five others, gave per- 
mission to the prince of Hesse Cassel, to have a plu- 
rahty of wives ! 

Musculus. " It is clearer than the light of day, that 
never were pagans more vicious and disorderly, than 
those professors of the gospeh'' 

Melancthon, " The thing speaks for itself. In this 
country, among the reformed^ their whole time is de- 
voted to ijitemp e7rmce— sunk into barbarity and igno- 
rance." 

Stuhbs^ speaking of England, says ; I found a gen- 
eral decay of good works ; or rather a plain defection, 
or falling aw^ay from God— who sees not that they 
(the papists) were far before us, and we far behind 
them?'' 

Capito. I acknowledge the great evils loe have 
occasioned in the church.'' 

Bishop Burnet^ speaking of the state of morality in 
England, in the reign of Edward VL says ; The sins 
of England did, at that time, call down from heaven 
heavy curses." 

Much more might be cited to the same purpose, 
proving incontestibly, that a reform in name is not al- 
ways a reform in fact^ and exhibiting in vivid colours, 
the persecutions, tumults, murders, perjuries, and 
other most flagitious conduct, of the most noted oppo- 
sers of Universal Salvation. It w^ould probably be 
said in extenuation, that these things occurred under 
a less degree of light than is enjoyed at the present 
day. True, but is the doctrine of endless torment 
calculated to produce this light, and gradually reform 
the heart ? If so, it is very ineflicient, for its spirit 
has done more disservice to the cause of humanity, 
than all other causes put together. The spirit which 
the detestable doctrine genders, hardens the heart, and 



44 



CANDID REVIEW. 



makes man the enemy of man. That persecution 
less prevalent now than formerly, is dependent on 
causes very ditFerent from the mildness of an orthodox 
spirit. It is accom.panied by the same vices, so far as 
they are not restrained by the civil law, and the jeal- 
ously between rival sects, which may undoubtedly 
lead to a greater degree of watchfulness over them- 
selves. This proposition is so notorious, from the 
Narratives of the state of religion in the bounds of 
different Presbyteries and Synods, that a recapitula- 
tion can be hardly necessary. Among the evils de- 
plored, are Sabbath-breaking, intemperance, fraud, 
and the et cetera of general immoralities; and these 
are distinctly charged on professing christians, com- 
municants of your order ; nor does it seem to present 
any relief to the eye, when we view those of other 
denominations, of congenial sentiments. The Epis- 
copal power in England, still rules the Catholics in the 
British empire with a rod of iron. In Switzerland, 
*' an orthodox, but inejicient faith^^'' persecutes to ex- 
ile and to death, and sufficient evidence is at hand, to 
satisfy the rational mind, that if the tenet of endless 
misery do not at present exercise its power with the 
same relentless fury, which has been its concomitant, 
it is because the civil law has shorn it of its strength, 
and the fist of wickedness is bound, that it cannot 
smite. 

But the subject is too abundantly fertile in the most 
condemning facts, to be closed in the present number ; 
it will be continued in the next. 

Yours, 

CANDIDUS. 



GANDID REVIEW. 



45 



NO. 4. 

To Rev. Joel Hazces^ — Hartford. 

Sir — In the preceding number of this Review, your 
descriptions of the audience, and of the doctrine 
taught by preachers of Universahsm, were in part ex- 
amined. In protesting against your portraiture, an 
appeal to the good sense of the community, was deem- 
ed an insuperable barrier to the truth of your state- 
ments, whether relating to the hearers or preachers. 
It was considered an outrage on civihzed society, to 
designate a large congregation as chiefly, if not exclu- 
sively, composed of the most abandoned of the human 
race ; it was shown, by your own words, that this was 
3'our evident meaning ; and, as no reservation was 
made in favour of any particular place, it was fairly in- 
ferred that none was intended. Such an unqualified 
assertion, in the face of the most unyielding facts, suf- 
ficiently indicates your unrelenting hostility to the 
doctrine, and that no compunctious visitings of con- 
science for a moment deterred you in the choice of 
weapons for a crusade against it. But it was due to 
the understanding of your readers — to the purity of 
the christian name, and to your own character — that 
some facts should support these assertions, or that they 
should not be made. These facts have not been de- 
tailed, nor has any thing in the form of evidence been 
thought necessary. Like the Papal Inquisition, you 
appear to consider the accusation as sufficient proof 
for conviction and condemnation. 

You must be aware that few cases occur, in which 
the accused is bound to prove a negative. To furnish 
evidence, clear and unequivocal, is the business of 
the accuser ; in default of which, his accusation is 
considered of no avail, and in certain cases, he is 



46 



CANDID REVIEW. 



amenable to the laws of his country for a vexatious 
prosecution, or is condemned to suffer the misery he 
designed to bring on the innocent. 

But not to dwell too seriously on your bare and 
unsupported assumption, which exhibits no more 
strength than ''the spider's most attenuated thread,'' 
positive contradiction is sufficient to meet it, until the 
production of testimony in your favour. 

In reference to the speaker who advocates the doc- 
trine in this city, you are not quite ignorant that for 
the last eighteen months, he has been editor of the In- 
quirer, a paper which is mostly devoted to the dissem- 
nination of the principles which you so unhesitatingly 
condemn. Do you there find any thing to support 
your assertions relative to the doctrine, which is so 
Tvrathfully reprobated in your Letters ? If so, why 
not produce it ? if not, what must be thought of the 
temerity with which you have ventured to attack a 
doctrine, whose advocates have 7iot furnished a wea- 
pon for their own destruction ? Every man, who 
would not be esteemed non compos mentis^ seeks to 
obtain his ends by the most feasible means. If the 
doctrine of Universalism be false, vou will never find 
a more powerful weapon against it, than that furnish- 
ed by the writers in its favour. Search the Inquirer 
through the volumes of four successive years for evi- 
dence in support of your positions, and, whether you 
find it or not, you know, or will know^ the tortures 
inflicted by a returned weapon. He who cannot be 
wounded by the poisoned shaft prepared by himself, 
is invulnerable. 

But, to come a little nearer to the point, let an in- 
quiry be instituted, which can easily be answered, if 
your declarations be indeed true. Whence did you 
derive the information, that preachers of Universal^ 
ism uphold the principles ascribed to 'them in your 
Letters ? Do you hear it from professors of pur doc* 



CANDID REVIEW. 



47 



trine, or yours ? If from jours^ name them. If from 
yours, and you believe them, you can have no hesita- 
tion in producing your vouchers. Are you, indeed, 
earnest in this cause ? Do you, as you have said, be- 
lieve that myriads will impute their endless ruin to the 
belief of this fatal doctrine ? If so, cry aloud and 
spare not ; lift up your voice as a trumpet ; and tak- 
ing the doctrine as taught by its leaders^ cut it in sunder 
by the sword of the spirit, and scatter it to the four 
winds by a pungency of investigation, which will dem- 
onstrate that your trust is in the pure word of pro- 
phecy. 

Thus much has not been said on this subject, be- 
cause either the manner or matter is entirely new. 
The apostacy of the church, which commenced in the 
days of the apostles, has borne the mark of the beast 
to the present hour. Mystery, deception, persecu- 
tion, have been its uniform concomitants, wherever 
the secular arm has been raised for its protection. 
But 

« Manners chang-e with climes, 

Tenets with books, and principles with times ; 
Search then the ruling- passion, there alone, 
The wild are constant, and the cunning known." 

The ruling passion of the apostate church has been 
to govern the minds, that they might control the bodies 
and estates of their devotees. Hence the long asses' 
ears of credulity are open for the reception of such 
stupid, indigested ' matters and things' as their ghost- 
ly teachers may be pleased to furnish, adding such 
condiments as will please none but a vitiated taste. 

During the age of miracles in the church, so called, 
the saints and fathers knew as well how^ to ride on the 
necks of a degraded multitude as do their descend- 
ants. But the general light of knowledge was then 
but dimly seen, and the tales told of heretics partook 



48 



CANDID REVIE^r. 



more largely of the marvellous than do those of the 
present age. 

As it is possible that a second edition of your Let- 
ters may be needed, I send you a small specimen of 
the pious frauds of the ancient fathers, which may 
furnish a hint for improvement in this particular. If, 
as Lord Bacon says, " a mixture of a lye doth always 
add pleasure," the following samples of the most flex- 
ible credulity will not be read without a proportionate 
degree of satisfaction. The following extracts are 
from a dull book, published in the beginning of the 
17th century, entitled Miracula Mortuomm^ et Vi- 
vorum*''^ The author of it was a German, named 
Henry Kornmann, who is represented by Baylie to 
have been a profound scholar, and a very ravenous 
devourer of learning. In describing the wonders that 
are to be found in the South Sea, he tells us, that Di- 
odorus, the geographer, writes, that there is an isl- 
and in it, where the inhabitants are each four cubits 
taller, than the inhabitants of Greece and Italy — their 
bones are not hard, but flexible, like nerves — their 
tongue is divided into two from the roots, so that they 
can keep up a conversation with one man with one 
half of their tongue, and with another with the other 
at the same time."^' Alluding to the Molucca Islands, 
he assures us, with inimitable simplicity, that " in the 
Island of Gylon, which is one of them, there is a na- 
tion with ears so large, that they hang down to their 
shoulders, and that in another island close to it, there 
is a nation with ears still longer. The inhabitants of it 
are accustomed, when they go to sleep, to lie down on 
one ear and to cover themselves up with the other ! ! 
To match this people, who make coverlets of their 
ears, the worthy German informs us that there are a 
people in India who make a parasol of their foot. — 
This story rests on the authority of Solinus, who, in 
his 53d chapter, enlightens the world be telHng it, that 



CANDID REVIEW, 



there is a nation of one-eyed people in India, who, 
though they have only one leg, are still endowed with 
snigular fleetness. When they want to protect them- 
selves from the heat, they fling themselves on their 
back, and rechne under the shade of their foot, which 
is immensely large.'' He quotes the following from 
the 37th sermon of St. Augustine to his brethren in 
the wilderness ; " When J was Bishop of Hippo, I 
went with some servants of Christ into Ethiopia, with 
the intention of preaching our holy religion. There 
we saw many men and women, not having any heads, 
but large eyes fixed in their breasts." St. Augustine, 
in his treatise, De Civiiate Dei^ lib. G, chap. 8." 
pledges his saintly word that there is in Ethiopia a 
nation which has no mouth or tongue, but which lives 
entirely upon air. When Augustine, the Monk, was 
sent into England by Gregory the Great, to preach the 
gospel, he was ridiculed and insulted by a family in 
Dorchester, who pinned frog-tails (ranarum caudas) to 
his garments. From that day all the descendants of 
that unfortunate family have been born, like beasts, 
with a long tail.'' But in later times, a more pure 
mark of heresy than either of the former has been 
discovered. To increase the zeal for persecution, it 
was related, that the children of heretics were born 
with blacky hairy throats^ and four rows of teeth I ! — ■ 
What a description ! Could any man think the church 
out of danger from such monsters ? 

But, it may be asked, what have all these tales to do 
with the description of Universahsts in the i9th cen- 
tury ? Precisely tliis. The stories told in those dark 
ages were no greater outrage on the credulity of the 
times, than those which you have uttered are on the 
more enlightened age in which we live. They were 
generally related for the purpose of self-elevation, and 
were intended to prop the doctrines of the anti-chris- 
tian church. In proportion to the distance which any 

5 



50 



CANDID REVIEW. 



church has receded from the simpHcity of the gospel^ 
does she find it necessary to guard her authority hy 
threats of damnation in a future world, and by severe 
penakies for doubting her supremacy in this. Among 
these penalties, are loss of character, of property, and 
<5f life, as power may give ability and caprice dictate. 
In this blessed land, indeed, the power of destroying 
life, and in some measure, property, is not possessed ; 
but the ability to smite with the tongue*" stillVemains, 
as the caricature given of a Universalist meeting 
fully evinces. 

I know not what people at a distance may think of 
your allegaition in this respect; but, if you gain credit, 
they must consider, not our meeting only, but the 
whole city as a complete pandemonium. That a nur- 
sery of vice, a school for the encouragement of the 
most atrocious villainies, should be weekly opened for 
these purposes, must excite astonishment, or incre- 
dulity. No man in his senses can believe that such a 
state of things exists, compatible with civil order. It 
must result in the destruction of civil society. 

An investigation of this subject led to a glance at 
your fundamental principle, the fear of a future, inter- 
minable place or state of misery. The Catholic 
church was cited as a specimen of what this doctrine 
has effected, not indeed for the improvement of our 
species, but for its degradation, its extermination. It 
was seen that to this bloody Moloch have been sacri- 
ficed at least fifty millions of human victims, by this 
church alone ; being one sixteenth part of the suppo- 
sed population of the earth at this moment. Haw 
this, or any other church could have done much worse^ 
even without her fundamental principles of The Trini- 
ty ^^nA. Endless Misery^ is not discovered. If, then, 
these principles have humanized the hearts of their 
votaries, where is the proof ? If not, by what mode of 
reasoning is it obvious that their g^pd effects ever have 



CANDID REVIEW. 



51 



beei;i, or ever will be experienced ? Reasoning analo- 
gically affords no prospect of amelioration, and facts 
are in high relief against it. 

It is vain to object that the Protestant church has 
uniformly protested against the spirit of persecution, 
as inherent in the Romish church. The very charge 
is against herself, for their fundamental principles are 
the same, and that these have not retarded the progress 
of persecution, is most obviously certain. That hu- 
man conduct differs materially under the influence of 
the same principles, is a position v/hich few w^ill at- 
tempt to vindicate, and no one successfully. All the 
anathemas hurled by the Protestant against the Papal 
church, are mere sound, while the same essential prin- 
ciples are common to both. It is allowed, indeed, that 
the language has been ransacked for epithets of oppro- 
brium to be heaped upon that church ; and w^hat is the 
inference ? The same language has ppissed current be- 
tween contending Protestant sects, ail equally detest- 
ing the Romish hierarchy. What now is the inference? 
Does all this amphibolous verbiage prove more in the 
one than in the other case ? Certainly not. 

A certain orthodox writer styles the church of Rome 
debateable ground, the half-way house between Chris- 
tianity and idolatry but he also allows, that it has 
so much both of the christian and the heathen,'' that 
it can hardly be determined to which she belongs. 
The much of Christianity, which she is allowed to pos- 
sess, has not stayed the horrors of persecution, for that 
much is the doctrine of endless misery, of which you 
are the champion. There is no avenue for escape 
from the conclusions at which we shall arrive by this 
process. Her orthodoxy is too notorious to be denied, 
and a very able writer of her church has quoted the 
sentiment from the mild, the comparatively amiable 
Melancthon, that a departure from the Trinitarian 
doctrine, is sufficient cause of persecution! 



52 



CANDID REVIEW. 



I shall now offer a few more testimonials from the 
ancient reformers, showing their opinion of the effects 
of the reformation, so called. 

Melanctho7u Indeed, speaking modestly, any oth- 
fer state of things, in any other age, exhil)its the beauty 
of an age of gold, when it is compared to the confu- 
sion which the reformers introduced." 

The same Melancthon writes to one of his corres- 
pondents ; 

All the waters of the Elbe would not give me suf- 
ficient tears to bewail the miseries of the refornfiation. 
The people will never submit to the yoke which the 
love of liberty made them throw off. Our partizans 
fight, not for the gospel, but ascendency. Ecclesiasti- 
cal discipline no longer exists. Doubts are entertain- 
ed on the most important subjects ; the evil is incura- 
ble ! !" 

In the preceding number I presented the picture of 
Luther, as a reformer, drazon by himself. I now pre- 
sent a picture of him, from his own writings, befoi^e he 
commenced reformer. 

When I lived in my monastery, I punished my 
body with watching, fasting, and prayer ; I observed 
all my vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience. 
Whatever I did, it was with singleness of heart ; with 
good zeal, and for the glory of God."'' 

How much better he was made by becoming a Pro- 
testant, has already been seen. 

Musculus. " If any one wishes to see a multitude 
of knaves, disturbers of the public peace, &c. let him 
go to a city where the gospel is preached in its purity;'' 
referring of course to a reformed city. 

Erasmus^ though a Catholic, was a scholar and a 
philosopher. He marked the progress of the reform- 
ation with the eye of a master, and his testimony goes 
to corroborate that of the reformers. He was an eye 
witness of the introduction and progress of the reform- 



CANDID REVIEW. 



St- 



ation, and noted its phenomena with the accuracy of u 
candid and correct historian. The following is from 
his description of the fruits of the reformation. 

And who are those gospel people ? Look around 
you, and show me one who has become a better man ; 
— show me one, who, once a glutton, is now turned' 
sober ; one, who, before violent, is now meek ; one> 
who, before avaricious, is now generous ; one, who, 
before impure, is now chaste. I can point out multi- 
tudes who are become far worse than they were he- 
fore.*" — " They have abolished confession, and few of 
them confess their sins, even to God. They have 

abrogated fasting, and they wallow in sensuality. 

They have become Epicureans, for fear of becoming 
Jews. They have cast off the yoke of human institu- 
tions, and along with it the yoke of the Lord. So far 
from being submissive to Bishops, they are disobedient 
to the civil magistrate. What tumults and seditions 
mark their conduct ! For what trifles do they fly to 
arms — " It is folly to exchange evils for evils, and 
madness to exchange small evils for great ones." 

Bezahas left sufficient monuments of his intoler= 
ance in his Tractatus de Hereticis puniendis^dind of his 
murderous disposition in the part he acted in different 
rebellions, and in the assassination of the Duke of 
Guise. Of his dissolute manners, his epigrams, print- 
ed in Paris, 1548, are a sufficient testimony, one of 
which commences thus ; 

Abest Candida, Beza quid moraris ? 

Andebertus abest, quid hie moraris ? 

Sed utrum, rogo, prseferam duorum ? 

Amplector quoque sic hunc et illam,'' &c. 
" This Candida, of Beza, was the wife of a tailor 
in Paris, by name Madame Claude, with whom this 
hcentious divine, when under prosecution in the latter 
city, fled to Geneva.'' — Milner 



54 CANDID REVIEW. 



And this is the man so often quoted as authority in 
the commentaries of Scott ! ! 

There is no difficulty in tracing the steps of the 
Protestant church down to the present day, both by its 
persecutions and general immoralities. Not an age 
has passed in which any one sect was clearly in the 
majority, unmarked by persecution. Of the immor- 
alities of the different sects, their own publications are 
the best witnesses. Hardly a Presbytery, or Synod, 
or General Convention meets, without the usual la- 
mentations over their churches, omccount of profane 
swearings drunkenness^ Sabbath breakings fraud, covet- 
ousness^ and the et cetera of general immoralities. 
And yet. Sir, with all these facts staring you in the face, 
you maintain sufficient impudence to accuse the Uni- 
versahsts of the same immoralities, and impute them 
to our principles ! as if they were not matters of suffi- 
cient notoriety in your own communion^ boasting a 
principle which you consider as much preferable to 
ours, as the light of the meridian sun is greater than 
the phosphoric twinkling of a glow worm. 

Should my health be restored after the distressing 
illness by which I am now confined, the subject of the 
present number will be concluded in the succeeding, 
when the value of our different principles may be de- 
termined by a criterion from which no appeal can lie. 
Yours, 

CANDIDU& 

KTO. 5. 

To Rev, Joel Hazoes^ — Hartford. 



Sir — Having through the blessing of our Heavenly 
^Father, been restored to a gtate of comparative healths 



CANDID REVIEW- 



55 



I hasten to redeem the pledge given at the close of my 
last. I shall not pay so poor a compliment to your 
understanding, as to presume you ignorant of the 
means in my possession for the redemption of this 
promise. Sufficient has already appeared to satisfy 
any rational man, that abundance of facts is in store 
for this purpose, and the only difficulty lies in select- 
ing the most important, and setting them in order for 
the specified purpose. 

The writings of the Protestant Fathers show con- 
clusively, that in the early ages of the Reformation, 
the advantages were clearly in favour of the Romish 
church, in general morals, even after the Lutheran 
and Calvinistic dogmas had converted nations. Then, 
if ever, ought we to look for fruits differing m.aterially 
from those of the mother church. If, however, we 
are to take the writings of the nursing fathers of the 
Reformation, as proof of its effects, the picture is in- 
deed appalling. If, in searching the history of the 
Reformation, we should find that its leaders were m^en, 
whose characters would sanction the belief that their 
ostensible was their real object ; or if those who joined 
their standard, became obviously better men and bet- 
ter citizens, than they were while in the Cathohc faith, 
a strong presumption would prevail, that they were 
actuated by an improved religious principle, and that 
the reformation was genuine. Such, however, does 
not appear to be the case, and a few facts will be ad- 
ded, as corroborating the quotations already made. 

Luther'^s testimony is not yet exhausted. ^' Form- 
erly, when we were seduced by the Pope, men wil- 
lingly followed good works, but now all their study is 
to get every thing to themselves, by exactions, pillage, 
theft, lying, usury.'' " It is a wonderful thing, and full 
of scandal, that from the time when the pure doc- 
trine, was first called ta lights the world should grow 
worse and voorse^"''* 



5S 



CANDID REVIEW. 



How much better was Luther's opinion of his own 

pure doctrine^ than is yours of Universahsm ? 

Bucer. The greater part of the people seem only 
to have embraced the gospel, in order to shake off the 
yoke of discipline, and the obligations of fasting, which 
lay upon them in time of popery ; and to live at their 
pleasure, enjoying their lust and lawless appetites with- 
out control. They therefore lend a willing ear to the 
doctrine that we SiVe justified by faith alone^ and not by 
good works, having no relish for them/' Another 
inquires to what else does the greater part pretend, 
except by shaking off the heavy yoke of superstition, 
to launch out more freely in every kind of lascivious- 
ness 

S^ryjDe, though an advocate for the reformation, gives 
a horrid picture of his times under the following 
heads — "Covetousness of.the nobility and gentry ; 
oppressions of the poor ; no redress at law ; the judges 
ready to barter justice for money ; impunity of mur- 
ders ; the clergy very bad from the bishops to the 
curates ; and above all, the increase of adulteries and 
whoredoms.'' 

Notwithstanding Luther renounced the supremacy 
of the Pope, he had no scruple in applying a title of 
pre-eminence to himself, with the reasons therefor, in 
the following words ; Martin huther^ Ecclesiasteii o{ 
Wittemburg ; for, it is not fitting that I should be with- 
out a title, having received the work of the ministry, 
not from man, or by man, but by the gift of God, and 
the revelation of Jesus Christ." 

And yet it is remarkable that with all this boasting, 
by his own account, he had frequent conferences with 
the devil, through whose influence he was induced to 
leave the mass ! The truth is, that Luther was an un- 
principled, hot-headed leader, who had no concern 
either for purity of doctrine or morals. That he had 
none for the former is evident by a reference to his 



CANDID REVIEW. 



57 



writings, in which he acknowledges much was done to 
spite the Pope ! As to the purity of his morals, he was 
a perjured monk^ who hesitated not to mutilate the 
scriptures in the translation, for the purpose of main- 
taining his own opinions, or more properly his innova- 
tions for the injury of the Romish church, and the 
promotion of a rebellious spirits. Zuinglius, addres- 
sing Luther, concerning his scriptural works says, in 
the following energetic language, " Thou dost corrupt 
the word of God, Luther. Thou art seen to be a 
manifest and common perverter of the scriptures !" 
When reproached for interpolation in translating Rom, 
3. 28, he thus arrogantly and impudently defends the 
corruption ; 

" So I will, so I command. Let my will be law* 
So Luther wills, and says he is a doctor above all 
doctors in the Pope's dominions. Therefore the word 
[sola, only, alone] should remain in my New-Testa- 
ment ; although all Papists be provoked to madness, 
they shall not expunge the word. I am sorry that I did 
not add, without any of the works of the law." 

Should you not be satisfied with the above free 
translation, you are welcome to a perusal of the ori- 
ginal Latin. 

How much succeeding reigns added to the spirit of 
toleration, may be seen by the following, copied from 
Buck and others ; 

" James L succeeded Elizabeth ; he published a 
proclamation commanding all Protestants to conform 
strictly, and without any exception, to all the rites and 
ceremonies of the Church of England. Above 500 
clergymen were immediately silenced, or degraded for 
not complying. Some were excommunicated, and 
some banished the country. The dissenters were 
distressed, censured, and fined in the Star Chamber* 
Two persons were burnt for heresy.'' 



58 CANDID REVIEW. 

Nor were the Presbyterians, when their govern/- 
ment came to be established in England, free from the 
chai'ge of persecution. In 1645, an ordinance was 
published subjecting all who preached or wrote against 
the Presbyterian Directory for public worship, to a 
fine not exceeding 50/. and imprisonment for a year, 
for the third offence, in using the episcopal book of 
common prayer, even in a private family. In the 
following year they petitioned parliament, pressing ihe 
enforcement of uniformity in religion, and to extirpate 
popery, prelacy, heresy, schism, &:c. In 1648, the 
parliament, ruled by them, published an ordinance 
against heresy, the infringement of which subjected to 
death. Among the heresies, were denying the Trinity, 
in any way, and denying that Christ had two natures.*" 

In the reign of Charles II. the act of uniformity 
passed, by which two hundred clergymen were depri- 
ved of their livings. Then followed the Conventicle, 
and Oxford acts, by which about eight hundred persons 
were reduced to want, and many to the grave. The 
Quakers were also imprisoned, and suffered severely/' 

I shall now pass over the insurrection of Munster, 
the massacres of the priests and religious orders in 
France by the Calvinists at the procession of Corpus 
Christie the mob called Lord Gordon's, to intimidate 
the parliament of Great Britain, in case any relief was 
intended by that body for the oppressed Catholics, and 
the abominable usurpations of our fathers, the Pilgrims, 
over the conscience, with a host of other concerns 
appertaining to the subject. Indeed, it is not neces- 
sary to the argument, that every year since the com- 
mencement of the reformation should be reviewed in 
particular, to prove the existence of a persecuting 
spirit, either in your order, or in those fundamentally 
similar. The existence of persecution in Switzerland 
at the present moment, under the auspices of a Pro- 
testant priesthood and secular government, in posses- 



CANDID REV lEW. 



5d 



Lsion of *'an orthodox but inefficient faith,'' is a fact 
which may silence all who contend, with Cecil, that 
Christianity is the wisdom from above, which is first 
pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full 
of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and with- 
out hypocrisy,*" 

If this is the christian religion, and I am full in the 
faith that it is, what shall we term that religion, which 
is based on an impure^ a warlike foundation, claiming 
to dictate and rule the conscience, and damning with 
fiend-like barbarity those w^ho cannot worship the im- 
age set up by monsters in human shape, and Continued 
in power by the most unsanctified and cruel methods ? 
What shall we term that rehgion, the abettors of which, 
so far from being gentle and easy to be entreated, shun 
the sight and conversation of those who are stigmatized 
by them as infidels and heretics, whose principles they 
do not understand, or which, knowing, they misrepre- 
sent ? Shall we, can we truly say, that that religion is 
from God, which, instead of producing mere?/ and good 
fruiU^ bears the evil fruits of cruelty, treachery, per- 
secution, falsehood— and whose first apostles were 
mere moral firebrands ? And can we followship those 
principles as without partiahty and without hj pocrisy, 
which every day's experience teaches us are full of 
both ? Truly, if Christianity be intended as an exhibi- 
tion of heavenly w^isdom, the tenet which we have 
had under examination is an/i-christian, and has no 
part nor lot in the matter. 

The evils to which allusion has been made, are the 
fruits of your doctrine, and however much it is soften- 
ed by assuming the Arminian form, and thereby ap- 
proximating towards the Catholic principles, enough 
is witnessed to convince every man, who has not a 
beam in his eye, that, but for the safeguard of our 
political institutions, our land would either swarm 
with hypocrites, or the country would be deluged with 



GANDIt) REVIEW. 



the misery and blood of her citizens. That this spa 
it of domination lives in the minds of the orthodox 
clergy, is plain from a few facts which are too notori- 
ous to be controverted. Two of these will now be 
recorded. 

When Congress appointed Mr. Sparks chaplain for 
the session, a hue-and-cry was set up by the clergy^ 
because he was a Unitarian — because he believed 
with the prophets, Christ, and bis apostles, that the 
Lord our God is one Lord. No other circumstance 
was alleged for their virulent abuse of the National 
Legislature, than this. If this appear a trifling mark 
of the dominating spirit of the clergy, in your mind^ 
it does not in mine. I think it but the herald of what 
we may expect, if the society, which is daily accumu- 
lating concentrated strength in our country, should 
finally gain that ascendancy over our elections, which 
it is at least possible for them to attain. 

The Legislature of Vermont also dared to appoint 
a Universalist chaplain, and the whole clerical fratern- 
ity was in awful alarm. The spirit of wounded pride 
was again let loose, and our vocabulary could hardly 
furnish epithets of abuse, expressive of their abhor- 
rence of this transaction. But do you, does any man 
suppose, that the chaplainship to a legislature, or 
court, is of any possible avail in the inculcation of re- 
ligious sentiment in general ? It is hardly probable- 
then why all this outcry ? Just this is the reason, 
You term these people heretics— you wish them to be 
considered monsters, that you may be justified in the 
^yes of others for hunting them as such. While you 
fear to meet either the one or the other, fairly, you 
would willingly smother them in a dungeon, or expose 
them to the fate of heretics, left to the tender mercies 
of a bigoted and vindictive clergy. I speak not this 
personally, but I allude to that thirst for power, both 



CANDID REVIEW. 



61 



spiritual and secular, which has never been possessed 
by the clergy, without its most palpable abuse. 

We have now looked, but looked in vain, for that 
purity of conduct which is supposed by you to accom- 
pany the fear of endless misery. We deny not that 
some professors of this belief have been bright and 
shining lights, and the ornaments of human nature. 
So have heathens been distinguished amid the sur- 
rounding darkness, by excellent principles and corres- 
ponding conduct. Nor have Catholics w^anted their 
valuable, their virtuous members, of whom it might be 
said, that they had almost redeemed the name of their 
sect from infamy. But the cry is still heard, The 
spirit of popery is persecuting and cruel.'' And yet, 
with all its evils, a first rate Calvinist, no less a man 
than William Wilberforce, Esq. member of the British 
Parliament, has declared before the British and For- 
eign Bible Society, that the eternal war which he had 
waged against the Romish religion should terminate, 
the moment when that denomination should join in the 
circulation of the scriptures ! Yes, popery, persecu- 
tion, and all ! I forbear to comment. 

But the criterion to which your attention is now 
called, is near at hand. Facts, drawn from undoubted 
history, and the broadest concessions of professors, 
leave your doctrine in more than a suspected state. 
But these facts, however obvious, are not the criteria 
which carry the most pungent testimony in the face of 
your principles. Another circumstance comes home to 
the business and bosom in the most direct and convin- 
cing manner. Are you prepared to hear, and dare you 
answer as to the God of the whole earth, the questions 
w^hich shall be proposed ? You speak unhesitatingly as 
to the final, interminable misery of some of our race, 
which is presumed to be the will of God. Do you 
pray for this event — can you thank God for this dis- 
pensation of misery — ^and do you enter into peace and 

6 



CANDID REVIEW. 



joy in believing it ! I leave the answer to your own 
soul — to your own master you stand or fall. 

For ourselves, we believe that the will of God is 
the restoration of all men to holiness and happiness ; 
we therefore pray in faith, nothing doubting. We 
thank God who has given us a reason for this prayer, 
that he will have all men to be saved, and come to the 
knowledge of the truth ; and we who believe this con* 
soling doctrine, enter into rest, in the full assurance 
that his counsel shall stand, and that he w^ill do all his 
pleasure. We are persuaded that his pleasure is to 
gather together in Christ, the fulness of the human 
race, and that the ransomed of the Lord shall return 
and come to Zion with songs of joy ; and the scriptures 
testify in the fullest manner, that Jesus gave himself a 
ransom for all. For this faith we are termed heretics, 
and it is no less true now than in the apostolic day, that 
we " labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the 
living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially 
of those who believe.''' 

The criterion is now before you. Dare you, do you 
pray for the fruition of your belief ? If not, where is 
that faith, without which you pray ? If you c?o, where 
is the command, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as 
thyself? 

If you thank God, is it for the infliction of intermin- 
able, unmerciful suffering, on your brethren according 
to the flesh ? If so, whj compass sea and land by your 
missionaries, to save men from that which is a cause 
of thanksgiving ? If you pray for, and thank God for 
the gift of salvation, from whom do you derive the 
spirit which it dictates ? Are you more merciful than 
our heavenly father? But, it is hardly necessary to 
inquire. Do you enter into peace^ and joy^ and rest^ 
believing as you profess in the vindictive, unrelenting 
vengeance of an incensed, implacable God. Impossi- 
hie. The more you feel that you are a son of Adam, 



% 



CANDID REVIEW. 



63 



a member of the human family, and that God hath 
made of one blood all nations — unless you possess a 
heart more callous than a Nero or a Caligula — the 
more you must feel, that nothing but the fiat of omni- 
potence, can render you submissive to a catastrophe, 
the thought of which has frequently led to distraction 
and suicide, but never, no, never to the love of God 
or man. Yours, 

CANDIDUS. 

HO. 6. 

To Rev. Joel Haioes^— Hartford • 

Sir — In the prosecution of my original design, I 
now proceed to maintain the position, that your Let- 
ters offer, as proof of certain tenets, scraps of scrip- 
ture in a mutilated form, bearing obvious marks of 
handling the word of God deceitfully. In sustaining 
this charge, the appeal is made to every man of in- 
formation—to every man of candour ; and means 
shall be placed within the reach of those who will use 
them, for determining the matter with the most in- 
dubitable certainty. Should I succeed in this attempt, 
the case will be left to the decision of a writer in the 
Connecticut Observer, No. 49. As this extract has 
already passed the ordeal of your inspection^ no fur- 
ther authority need be offered. 

" We would just remark in this place, that although 
Mr. H. is accused of doing injustice to an eminent di- 
vine, the injury does not appear to be that of quoting 
falsely — a mode of procedure, which, whenever adop- 
ted^ argues criminal inadvertence^ or more criminal 

DESIGN.'" 

Your attention is now called to the following para= 
graph from Letter 5. 



64 



CANDID REVIEW. 



" To begin then with the Old Testament : it is said 
of the wicked, they are to be turned into hell ; their 
name is to be put out forever ; the portion of their 
cup is snares, brimstone, and an horrible tempest ; 
they shall perish ; consume into smoke ; consume 
away ; they shall die in their iniquity ; they shall rise 
to shame and everlasting contempt ; their joy is but 
for a moment ; their candle shall be put out, and their 
hopes perish ; their hope is like the giving up of the 
ghost ; their triumphing is short ; their end is to be 
cut off ; a day which burns like an oven, shall burn 
them up, and leave them neither root nor branch ; 
they shall be suddenly destroyed, and that without 
remedy ; God will laugh at their calamity and mock 
when their fear cometh ; he will tear them in pieces, 
and there shall be none to deliver ; their expectations 
shall perish ; their hope shall perish like the spider's 
web/' 

The first quotation contains no less than fourzvords 
of scripture^ extracted from Psalm 9:17, the whole 
of which reads thus ; " The wicked shall be turned 
into hell, and all the nations that forget God.'' An 
old version reads thus : The wicked shall go into hell. 
That this is the strongest passage which is quoted in 
the whole paragraph, will not be disputed. If the 
doctrine you labour to support be clearly taught in this 
verse, an examination of its contents will close the 
present review, and my belief in the doctrine, which a 
sense of duty leads me now to vindicate, will then be 
publicly renounced. 

The language is evidently without limitation* The 
zoicked — not some, not a part — the sum total of the 
wicked shall be turned into hell — yes, and all the na- 
tions that forget God. Truly this is a sweeping de- 
claration. But, who are the wicked ? The same wri- 
ter informs us, that God, in looking from heaven, could 
find no others ! All were wicked. In the days of 



CANDID REVIEW. 



65 



Paul, the same character was sustained. Says this 
apostle — " We have before proved, both Jews and 
Gentiles, that they are all under sin." Yes — For 
all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.'^ 
Indeed, the picture begins to gather gloom, and if the 
meaning of the term hell be what you represent it, 
and none are redeemed from it, the result will be uni- 
versal damnation ! If every mouth shall be stopped, 
and all the world shall become guilty before God, 
your hypothesis leads to a catastrophe more dreadful 
than you anticipated. But to relieve the subject, let 
us examine the import of the word hell, as used in 
the passage before us. — And first, the writer of the 
text shall be called as a witness to settle the meaning 
of his own language. This course appears rational ; 
it ought to be convincing. In Psalm 16 : 10, we read ; 

For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell ; neither wilt 
thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." 
Whether this primarily referred to the writer, or 
merely to Christ, is immaterial. Common sense 
would be most wretchedly violated, in saying that the 
Psalmist could refer to a soul neither then in nor ever 
to be in, hell. In Acts 2 : 27, Peter speaks of this 
passage in reference to Christ. The following words, 
in the 31st, evidently refer to what was said in the 
27th verse ; " He seeing this before, ?f)ake of the 
resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in 
hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. If the 
apostle were correct in this allusion, whatever be the 
meaning of the word hell, it is evident that the soul 
of Christ was there, and not left there, which is a 
stronger argument for redemption from hell, and de- 
serves more credit, than your declaration — " there the 
Bible leaves themy True, it may be said, this is using 
the term figuratively. It is so. — Grant this and I am 
contented, or, take it literally, and I am equally well 
satisfied. When used in a figurative sense, it signifies 



CANDID REVIEW. 



mental suffering. Thus David in the 1 1 6th Psalm, 3d 
verse, says, The sorrows of death compassed me, 
and the pains of hell gat hold upon me ; I found trouble 
and sorrow." That trouble and sorrow are here 
represented as the pains of hell, is beyond dispute, 
and that they were endured in this world, is too evident 
for contradiction ? That the use to which you apply 
it is not correct, and that the sense attached to it by 
the writer of the text gives not the least intimation of 
the doctrine, which you wish to sustain by the quota- 
tion, is obvious. 

In the 86th Psalm, 13th verse, we find David extol- 
ling the mercy of God on this wise ; " For great is 
thy mercy toward me ; and thou hast delivered my 
soul from the lowest hell." Thus we find that Da- 
vid's soul was delivered from the lowest hell, the great- 
est degree of affliction — the pains of hell which had 
taken hold of him. David was a sinner— he experi* 
enced the truth of his own declaration—'' the wicked 
shall be turned into hell by his own account, he 
suffered this punishment, and obtained deliverance. 

My intention is not to anticipate every quibble which 
may be advanced in opposition to these unsophistica- 
ted facts, and their fair and unavoidable conclusions ; 
but propriety demands that the literal meaning of the 
term should also be given. 

Mr. Balfour in his Inquiry, says ; The word hell 
does not occur once in all the Old Testament, where 
it means a place of endless misery for the wicked. 
The fact is indisputable ; no man can doubt it,-who 
will take the trouble to examine this matter for him- 
self. Nor is this a novel opinion, or a new discovery 
of mine. The fact is attested by some of the ablest 
writers who believed in this doctrine." 

In confirmation of this statement, this perspicuous 
writer has quoted pretty fully from the orthodox Dr. 
Campbell, whose critical acumen will not be disputed 



CANDID REVIEW. 



67 



by you most surely. From this quotation I select the 
following extracts, being sufficient for my present pur- 
pose. 

" As the word hades, [the same that is translated 
hell in the passage before us] which occurs in eleven 
places of the New Testament, and is rendered hell 
in all except one, where it is translated grave^ it is quite 
common in classical authors, and frequently used by 
the Seventy in the translation of the Old Testament. 
In my judgement, it ought never in scripture to be 
rendered hell, at least in the sense wherein that word 
is now universality understood by christians. In the 
Old Testament, the corresponding word is sheol, 
which signifies the state of the dead in general, with- 
out regard to the goodness or badness of the persons^ 
their happiness or misery.'' " The state is always 
represented under those figures which suggest some- 
thing dreadful, dark, and silent, about which the most 
prying eye, and listening ear, can acquire no informa- 
tion. The term hades, is Avell adapted to express 
this idea.'' " To this the word hell, in its primitive 
signification, perfectly corresponded. For, at first, 
it denoted only what was secret, or concealed.'' 

" It is very plain, that neither in the Sep- 

tuagint version of the Old Testament, nor in the New, 
does the word hades convey the meaning which the 
present English word hell, in the christian usage, al- 
ways conveys to our minds." 

After stating that the illustration of this remark by 
an enumeration of all the passages in its support, 
would be an endless labour,* and that it is hardly pre- 
tended that this is the acceptation of the term by any 
critic, he thus proceeds ; 

* Mr.BalfcHir has submitted to this endless task, and produced 
a book, to answer which will require all the powers of all the 
clergy in Christendom. Universalists and all others should be- 
cqme acquainted with this most unanswerable performance. 



68 



CANDID REVIEW. 



Who, for example, would render the %vords of the 
venerable patriarch Jacob, Gen. 38 : 35, when he was 
deceived by his sons into the opinion that his favour- 
ite child, Joseph, h^d been destroyed by a wild beasts 
I will go dov/n to hell to my son mourning? or the 
words which he used^ ch, 42 : 38, when they expostula- 
ted with him about sending his youngest son Benja- 
min into Egypt along with them, Ye will bring down 
my grey hairs with sorrow to hell ? Yet, in both 
places, the word in the original, is sheol, and in the 
version of the Seventy, hades."^' 

Brief as these extracts are, they serve to show, that 
the passage under examination, whether used in a 
literal or figurative sense, has no reference to a future 
state, nor does the context warrant such an applica- 
tion. With what views you have quoted this passage, 
calculated to mislead those who seldom examine for 
themselves, is for you to answer. It is not my pro- 
vince to decide whether you are a sciolist, or a willing 
instrument for the perpetuation of ignorance and su- 
perstition. Let any English reader examine the Bi- 
ble for himself, and further remark on this subject 
will be needless. It is impossible for any one to ex- 
amine the quotations that follow, of from two to four 
words in a place, without perceiving, that the only 
foundation for a belief that either of them applies to 
a future state, is the ignorance, or wilful blindness of 
the reader. W^hat has the putting out of a man's 
name, or consuming away, or consuming like smoke, 
to do with a future state, and more particularly with a 
state of eternal misery ? Where is the analogy ? it is 
not discovered ; not a single intimation is given in 
either of these quotations, respecting another state of 
being ! The sound of several of the texts is much 
nearer annihilation, than never ending suffering. No 
man, who will carefully read the passage fromDaniel^ 
need be ignorant that the time to which the prophet 



CANDID REVIEW, 69 



alludes, was the appearance of our Saviour, and I 
believe all commentators agree in this view of the 
text. The marginal references uniformly point to this 
event. 

But, unjustifiable as is the practice of garbhng the 
scriptures in this manner, interpolating them is still 
worse* That you have foisted a word into one of the 
texts for the perversion of its meaning, every reader 
of scripture may satisfy himself with very little 
trouble. The passage to which I refer is found in 
the first chapter of Proverbs. Every reader of this 
book ought to be sensible of the figurative style in 
which it is written. Agreeable to oriental custom, 
the virtues, and passions, and attributes of man are 
personified. Thus in Prov. 9 : 1, we find that " Wis« 
dom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her 
seven pillars." Is it possible that a dullard can be 
found, capable of reading, who would admit that the 
change of the word wisdom to God, would not be a 
most palpable violation of the sense in this verse ? I 
trust not. And is not the change made by you in the 
verse under consideration, an equal violation of pro- 
priety, as you have misquoted it ? In verse 20 we 
read, Wisdom crieth without,'' and the prosopo- 
paeia is continued to the 26th verse, now under con- 
sideration. But a circumstance which adds to the 
strength of the argument is noted in the 21st verse in 
particular. She [not God] crieth in the chief place 
of concourse, in the openings of the gates.'' The 
feminine gender of the person alone, would settle 
the question ; but further evidence is found in the 
same verse. The " gates'' were the places for hold- 
ing courts, and transacting much business, and by the 
most familiar figure, this language expressed the value 
of those lessons of wisdom which might be learned 
there, and which are very properly considered as the 
voice of wisdom. That God, the Father of the spir- 



70 



CANDID REVIEW. 



its of all flesh — who considereth our frames, and who 
has in so many ways expressed a deep regard even for 
the chief of sinners — 1 say, that he should mock at 
the calamities,"^ and laugh at the fears and consequent 
distress of his erring children, is no less derogatory to 
his character, than it is contrary to the most ex- 
press declaration of scripture. Notwithstanding the 
dreadful threatenings of the Lord against Ephraim, 
and the sufferings by which he was humbled, the voice 
of his father is thus heard — ^' Is Ephraim my dear son, 
is he a pleasant child ? for since I spake against him, 
1 do earnestly remember him still." See also Hosea, 
chap. 12 and 13. Ephraim provoked him to anger 
most bitterly ; therefore shall he leave his blood upon 
him, and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him." 

Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself." But look 
on four verses, and you will perceive the 14th to read 
thus ; " I will ransom them from the power of the 
grave ; I will redeem them from death ; O death, I 
will be thy plagues ; O grave, I will be thy destruc- 
tion ; repentance shall be hid from mine eyes." 
Should you recur to the original for the word grave, 
you will find it sheol in the Hebrew, and hades in the 
Greek ; the very word translated hell in Ps. 9 : 17. 
It is needless to comment. Every man who can and 
will see, must perceive, not only the destruction of 
hell, but the shocking absurdity of representing our 
Father in heaven, as millions of times worse than 
Alaric, or Robespierre. But the testimonies of God's 

* To show how inconsistent such a course is, even with those who 
profess not the miid religion of Jesus, the following authentic anec- 
dote is introduced. During the American Revolution, Mr. O. was 
a violent enemy to American liberty. He did much to render him 
obnoxious to the whig party. He was taken sick. An infuriated 
mob collected, intending to drag him to death at a horsess heels. 
They saw him in the utmost agony of mind and body— -they relent- 
ed^ and left him, without mocking his miseries. 



CANDID REVIEW. 



71 



kindness to the erring children of men, are too abun- 
dant to enumerate, and every scriptuarian ought to be 
ashamed of that criminal neghgence, or more crimi- 
nal DESIGN, which is manifested by such unfair and 
deceitful quotations. 

After exhibiting a total want of testimony for the 
.support of your doctrine, in the strongest of your pas- 
sages, I shall leave the examination of the remaining 
scraps to those whose attention is not directed to 
more important concerns. Every school boy of 
twelve ought to know, that two or three dislocated 
words are less proof of an important doctrine, than of 
a disposition to wrest the scriptures for an unrighteous 
purpose. 

That the quotation from the 9th Psalm is quite im- 
pertinent, is evident, first, from its proving too much, 
if it prove any thing to the purpose ; secondly, by ex- 
amples from the same writer, exhibiting its evident 
meaning; and, thirdly, by concessions of able sholars, 
that its literal meaning does not justify the application. 
If you object that the authority already quoted applies 
to the term hell as translated from sheol, or hades, it 
is readily granted, for it is all which this subject re- 
quires ; and this must be acknowledged, or the author- 
ity of Dr. Campbell, and other eminent scholars, 
deemed entirely nugatory. To suppose you ignorant 
of the strong ground on which the subject is placed by 
the concessions of the orthodox, and the labours of 
the learned, is to place you among the illiterate herd 
of religious mountebanks, who exhibit no more com- 
punction for uttering curses upon their fellow-men, 
than for murdering the King's English. You know, 
or ought to know, that no form of expression used in 
the Old Testament, is allowed by able critics to apply 
to the subject of future misery. At all events, you 
certainly have been unfortunate in the selection of 
testimony from this source, even if it exists. Not a 



72 



CANDID REVIEW. 



single quotation, even in its mutilated state, either by 
itself, or in its connexion, hints at a future state of 
existence. A circumstance of some consequence in 
establishing so important a doctrine. 

The terms Tartarus and Gehenna, which are trans- 
lated hell in the common version, will receive due 
attention. My design is to examine your assertion 
relative to the Greek words rendered everlasting, 
eternal, forever, and forever and ever, in the next 
number. The truth of your assumption, that There 
is no term in the Greek language to denote endless 
duration, if the words under consideration do not,'' 
will then be fully and fairly tested, by authority which 
a sense of decency alone, ought to render satisfactory. 
Perhaps the mere English reader will then be enabled 
to judge of the veracity of your statement, and in 
some measure of the situation of a doctrine, to main- 
tain which, so much misrepresentation, and such pal- 
pable wanderings from truth are found necessary. 

Yours, 

CANDIDUS. 

NO. 7. 

To Rev. Joel Hawesy — Hartford^ 

Sir— My object in writing the present number, is^ 
to invalidate your declarations respecting the Greek 
words aion, aionios^ and the phrase eis tous aionos ton 
aionon^ rendered eternal^ everlastings for ever^ and for 
ever and ever. To these you allude in the following 
words ; — There is no term in the Greek language to 
denote endless duration^ if the words under considera- 
tion do not.'^ 



CANDID REVIEW. 



T3 



With very little labour, four Greek zoorrf^have been 
discovered, each of which expresses endless duration 
with as much more precision than these, as perfect 
knowledge is more absolutely certain than Utopian 
speculation. You grant, as every man must, that 
the subject indicates the signification, and communi- 
cates the force which is annexed to these words. 
Thus not only do your concessions, but those of all 
the learned, clearly and explicitly evince, that the 
subject qualifies these words, and not these words the 
subject. Hence as the use of these words cannot con- 
clusively settle any point of doctrine, it must be made 
obvious in some other way. From this conclusion 
you have no method of escape. The terms, as is con- 
ceded, are evidently vague, indefinite, equivocal — then 
endless misery, if true^ must rest on another founda» 
(ion, composed of more indestructible materials. 

The argument might soon be brought to a close, in 
view of your admission, by proving conclusively, by 
the most explicit and definite language of scripture5 
that sin and suffering shall cease, and that universal 
holiness and happiness shall succeed the reign of sin 
and misery. But my intention is not to preoccupate 
the ground which is reserved for the closing number. 
Your assertions respecting these words, will therefore 
come under consideration. 

Aristotle, who was contemporary with Alexander 
the Great, declared, that more ancient writers than 
himself, called the time of a person's life, his aion. 
You say, however ; 

With respect to the first, aion, when governed by 
the preposition €^5, in which connexion it is always 
used when applied to the future punishment of the 
wicked, uniformly denotes endless duration.''^ 

An examen of but few words, will test the valu^ 
of this broad assertion. Your own concessions stand 
in the most palpable contraposition of this statement 



74 



CANDID REVIEW. 



Here you say that aion^ when governed by eis^ uni*^ 
FORMLY denotes endless duration. In the preceding 
section (sect. 3, Let. v.) you concede the point in the 
following words ; 

" Thus a servant/or ever is a servant during life ; an 
ordinance for ever^ is an ordinance which continues 
during the entire dispensation of which it is a part/' 

What a singular uniformity ! If eis aion uniformly 
denotes endless duration,'' whence did you derive the 
exception? If the exception he correct, where is the 
truth of your lemma ? If this be uniformity, what is 
difformity ? Another instance of such accommodating 
uniformity is not to be found within the scope of the 
English language, most certainly, and it is hoped in no 
other. But the reason of this malversation is obvious 
at the first blush. No ambiguity rests on the subject 
In the face of previous concessions, this postulate is 
brought forward in support of a heathen tenet, by an 
unqualified assertion, that it is thus always used when 
applied to the future punishment of the wicked ! It 
was your duty first to prove the assumption you had 
made, and not thus to hide yourself behind the shadow 
of anonymous authority, without a particle of proof 
If you have Ught on this subject, your duty is to pro- 
duce it ; let it shine. 

Before exhibiting the revolting absurdities which 
flow from your theorem, some remarks will be offered 
on the following quotation ; 

The phrase eis tous aionas ton aionon^ commonly 
rendered for ever and ever, is used eighteen times in 
the New-Testament. In fifteen instances it is apphed 
to the continuance of the glory, perfections, govern- 
ment and praise of God* In one it is used to denote 
the future happiness of the righteous ; and in the othef 
two, it is applied to the future punishment of the wick- 
ed. The probability then that in these two instanced 
it denotes endless duration, is as sixteen to nothing.'^ 



CANDID REVIEW. 7b 

Perhaps the expression may be uncourtly, but really, 
Sir, this continual use of the petitio principii denotes 
a weakness of argument, and a destitution of facts, if 
not of principle, which plainly indicates the desperate 
situation of yourcause."^ Instead of proving the end» 
less punishment of the wicked, that is taken for grant- 
ed, and the only question appears to be, whether this 
mode of expression points to the horrid catastrophe, 
not whether the doctrine is true ! 

The two cases which you consider as sustaining the 
position you have taken, will now be subjected to a 
brief investigation. One of the quotations, to which 
you probably allude, is found in Rev. 14 : in the fol- 
lowing connexion ; 

" And the third angel followed them, saying with a 
loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his im- 
age, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his 
hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of 
God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup 
of his indignation ; and he shall be tormented with 
fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, 
and in the presence of the Lamb : And the smoke of 
their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever ; and 
they have no rest day nor night, who worship the 
beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the 
mark of his name." 

The denunciation appears to be directed against the 
worshippers of the beast and his image. We read 
they have no rest day nor night, who worship, &^c. \ 
Is any thing said, or intimated, respecting a future 
state ? So far, all is in the present tense— who worship, 

If my information be correct, Mr. H. already anticipates 
the downfall of Calvinism here, as it has fallen in Geneva. If^ 
in that city, where the father of this system had power to perse- 
cute, imprison, banish, and burn, the lived g-lare of fatalism be 
extinguished, well may he forebode, from its tabid state in this 
country, its final extinction. May the rising- generation be able 
la write under this prophecy, probatum est. 



76 



CANDID REVIEW. 



not who have worshipped have no rest, not sh^ll 
have no rest ; and all this, during the alternation of 
day and night ! In chap. 13 : we learn, thaf power 
was given unto him [the beast worshipped] to continue 

JPORTY AND f wo MONTHS 

But who are the worshippers ? See chap. 13, 16, 17. 

" And he causeth alJ,both small and great, rich and 
poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right 
hand, or in their foreheads : And that no man might 
buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of 
the beast, or the number of his name." 

Let him that readeth understand. 

The other passage to which I presume you refer, is 
Rev. 20:10. 

And the devil that deceiveth them was cast into 
the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and 
the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and 
night for ever and ever." 

Here again is the succession of day and night, con- 
nected with eis tons aionas ton aionon^ or for ever and 
ever. If forty-two prophetic months, signify endless 
duration, and if day and night are to succeed each the 
other in a resurrection state, you have merely to ex- 
hibit proof of these facts, and your arguments will be. 
invincible. 

Behoving the case too plain to require a protracted 
argument, permit me now to inquire, if the positive 
certainty attached to this phrase is as sixteen to noth- 
ing ? or whether your attempt to support a forlorn 
argument is as to 16 ? 

To exhibit the cataclvsm of absurdities which flow 
»/ 

from your premises, an abstract of a sermon by Rev. 
J. S. Thompson is inserted below. The reader who 
considers the subject worthy of examination, will easily 
turn to the passages to which he is referred, and satis-^ 
fy himself of the correctness of Mr. T^s observations* 



CANDID REVIEW. 



77 



" As I have adopted the term aionion instead of 
everlasting, some explanation may be necessary. It 
is derived from the noun aion^ which Phavorinus says, 
signifies " he zoe kai ho bios, life, or to metron tes 
anthropines zoes,'' the measure or length of human 
life. The word age is the most appropriate in the 
English language to express the signification of the 
Greek aion.— Thus we speak of the age of a child^ 
the age of a man, the Antediluvian age, the Patriarchal 
age, the Christian age, and the age of the world. In 
all these examples, we find the term age varied, and 
the extent of its duration known only by the qualifying 
words or phrases with which it is connected ; for by 
the above examples the word age may indefinitely de- 
note a period of one year, fifty years, two thousand 
years, or five thousand years, as the sense may require. 
The Hebrew olam^ translated aion in the Septuagint, 
and correctly rendered into English by our translators 
^ only once, Ephes. 3:7, by the word age, signifies a 
concealed or unknown period of time, whose duration, 
like the terms aion and age, can only be measured by 
the subject to which it is appUed. The Hebrew slave 
who stipulated to serve his master, Hebrew, od olam^ 
Septuagint, eis aiona, English, for ever, Ex. 21 : 6, 
Deut. 15 : 17, did not thereby agree to serve for any 
definite period of time ; for the duration of his servi- 
tude entirely depended on the following circumstancesc 
1 . His own death. 2. The death of his master. 3. 
The return of the Jubilee. Whichever of these oc- 
curred first, dissolved the agreement, and effected the 
termination of that indefinite period indicated by the 
phrase ad olam, or eis aiona, for ever. Accordingly, 
the same phrase is translated forever, all the days of 
his hfe, as long as he liveth, 1 Sam. 1 : 11, 22, 28. 
Hence we see the Hebrew ad olam, the Greek eis 
aiona, and English forever, or everlasting, expressive 

of the duration of the Hebrew's servitude ; or Sam- 

7# 



78 



CANDID REVIEW. 



uePs life might have indicated the period of one week^ 
three days, as in Jonah 2 : 6, or one year, but could 
not exceed the time of 48 years ; for every 49th year 
brought again the return of jubiiee. Who then can 
urge the argument for endless misery from the term 
aion, as implying endless duration ; — -whilst the very 
highest classical authority limits the term to the length 
of human life. Isocrates and Zenophon say, ton 
aiona diagein, to pass the time of life. Teleutesai ton 
aiona, in Herodotus and Sophocles, signifies, to end 
hfe, or die. Homer uses aion, frequently, as the syn- 
omime of zoe, hfe, II. 4. 478, IL 5. 685, and II. 16. 
458. And sometimes for the period of a short life 
lost in battle. Ho nun aion, in the scriptures, always 
signifies the present life. See IWhitby on Eph. 2. 2, 
2 Tim. 4. 10 ; Mark 10, 30. Surely if the word aion 
imply endless duration, Christ and his apostles must 
have been very ignorant of its meaning ; for he tells 
them the harvest, or founding of the christian church, 
is the END of the aion. Mat. 13. 39. Lo I am with 
you till the end of the aion. Mat. 28. 20. And they 
ask him what shall be the sign of the end of the world 
(aion^) Mat. 24. 3. Moreover, the writers of the New 
Testament speak of a time before the aions began. 
1 Gor. 2. 7. The beginning of the aions, Ephs. 3, 
9 ; Col. 1 : 26 ; of aions past, and aions to come, CoL 
1. 26; Ephes. 2. 7 ; of a period which shall last 
through the aion of aions, Eph. 3. 21 ; of a time after 
the aions shall be ended, and of a period hyperbohcal- 
ly exceeding aeonian, 2 Cor. 4. 1 7 ; and lastly, of the 
formation^ or constitution of the aions, Heb. 1. 
Do our doctors know these things t If not, are they 
not shamefully ignorant ? If they do, ought not their 
efforts to impose on the credulous induce us to beware 
of them in t'lxm to aome ? Felix quemaliena pericula 
cautem>'' 



CANDID REVIEW. 



But, however obvious it may be, that your proposi- 
tion is utterly at fault, let us try its strength on the 
declaration found in Isa. 57. 15. 

" For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be 
always wroth ; for the spirit should fail before me, and 
the souls which 1 have made." 

That this applies to the subject of punishment is 
seen by the context, which refers to the stitF-necked 
and rebellious house of Israel. 

" For the iniquity of his covetousness 1 was wroth, 
and smote him ; I hid me and was wroth, and he went 
on frowardly in the way of his heart. 1 have seen 
his ways, and will heal him : I will lead him also, and 
restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. I 
create the fruit of the lips ; Peace, peace to him that is 
far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD ; and 
I will heal him.'^ 

But these few examples of difformity in the use of 
these words are probably sufficient for the present op- 
portunity. Your attention is now called to the words 
already noticed, brought to confront your ipse dixit. 
I am no Agonistes — but this appeal is confidently made 
to every Greek scholar, for the truth of my declara- 
tion. The appeal is pubhc, and testimony is at hand 
for the redemption of my pledge, I have only to say — ■ 
audi alteram partem. 

The words to which I allude are the following, with 
their definitions. If they be not conclusive on the 
subject, society may be much enlightened by showing 
where they are as vaguely used as the words under 
review. 

Luke 18. 1. Pantote always, perpetually. 

1 Cor. 9. 25. Aphthartos^ immortal, indissoluble^ 

2 Tim. 1. 10. .-^joA^Aarm, immortality. 
Heb. 7. 16. Akatalutos^ endless, indissoluble. 
Every well informed man knows, and every candid 

man will acknowledge, that the practical use of a word 



80 



CANDID REVIEW. 



is a more certain criterion of its value, than a know]= 
edge of its etymology. Hence the concessions which 
you and others are compelled to make concerning the 
words under consideration. To say that these words 
are improperly used in sacred writ, affords not the 
least possible assistance to the subject, nor can it in 
any way affect the argument, further than to dem^on- 
strate the verity of these criticisms. If, as you ac- 
knowledge, they aye indefinitely used, their mere use 
can neither maintain nor destroy any sentiment, for 
proof requires precision. To determine otherwise, 
would destroy all distinction in the import of words, 
tend to utter confusion in society, and, if continued to 
its ultimate consequence, must result in the darkest 
barbarism. That common readers may duly appre- 
ciate your claim to consistency, a few places are 
noticed in which aion is improperly translated world. 

In Mat. 12. 32. 13. 22, 39,40, 49. 24. 3. 27. 20. 
Mark 4. 19. Luke 1. 70. 16. 8. 20. 34. John 9. 32. 
Acts 3.21. 15. 18. Rom. 12. 2. 1 Cor. 1. 20. 
2. 6,6. 3. 18. 8. 13. 10.2. 2. Cor. 4. 4. Gal. 1.4. 
Eph. 6. 12. 1 Tim. 6. 17. 2 Tim. 1.9. 4. 10, and 
in a number of instances, besides those heretofore 
noticed, the word aion is rendered world ; with what 
propriety it is thus translated, in preference to age, let 
those who read, judge. It may be sufficient here to 
state, that Heza, in his Latin Testament, renders the 
word, excepting only in 1 Cor. 8: 13. As he 
was a stickler for endless misery, no suspicion will 
rest on him as a heretic ; nor will his character, as a 
Latin scholar, be called in question. 

I shall now give a brief notice of two other passages, 
in Letter 5. You ask, Now is it credible that God 
should use the same word, in the same sentence, in 
totally different senses Without answering either 
yea or nay to this query, it is sufficient to say that the 
scriptures do contain a number of verges, in each of 



CANDID REVIEW. 



81 



which different significations are attached to the same 
word. The following examples are sufficient at this 
time. Hab. 3. B. And the everlasting mountains 
were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow ; his way^ 
are everlasting." Heb. 2 : 14. — that through death, 
he might destroy him that had the power of death, 
that is, the devil.'' No doubt, however, we ought to 
be cautious, in wresting the same words to ditferent 
meanings ; nor should we, without evident reason, 
presume to affix a meaning to words, which set one 
declaration of scripture in array against another. 

Speaking of future rewards and punishments, and 
the eternal existence of the soul, you say that both 
are expressed in the same terms. In answer I would 
say, that we no more dream of reward, either for 
virtue or vice in another state of being, than in this. 
Our principles go straight forward. Beheving that in 
keeping the commandment is a great and present re- 
ward, we as fully believe that iheioay of transgressors 
is hard, and will so continue, long as God is moral 
governor of the universe. It is strongly doubted if one 
passage of scripture can be produced, where either 
aion or its derivatives, expresses the duration of the 
happiness of any being, beyond this state of existence. 
But expressions are used relative to the never ending 
duration of holiness and felicity, of the most unequivo- 
cal character, and past the power of criticism to limit, 
which will be exhibited in due time. Produce equal 
authority for the perpetuity of sin and misery, if pos- 
sible, and the Bible will exhibit as great and palpable 
at^surdities as those with which your Letters abound. 

1[^T0-^ up a scrap of vacant paper, permit me to 
task your attention a few minutes longer, while I in- 
troduce a passage for the application of your rule, as 
an argumentum ad hominem. The rule may be appli- 
ed to the w^ord a//, as used in 1 Cor. 15 : 24 to '28 
inclusive. 



82 



CANDID REVIEW. 



" Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivei> 
ed up the kingdom to God, even the Father ; when he 
shall have put down all rule and all authority and 
power> For he must reign till he hath put all ene- 
mies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be 
destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under 
his feet. But when he saith, aj^l things are put un- 
der him^ it is manifest that he is excepted, which did 
put ALL things under him. And when all things shall 
be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself 
be subject unto him that put all things under him, 
that God may be all in all.'' 

Here is an example in point. The word all occurs 
ten times in the course of five verses, and, agreeable to 
your own words, " without any mark of distinction.''' 
The definition of the word is— the whole, every one, 
every thing, quite, completely, altogether, the whole 
quantity, every part. 

Be pleased now to furnish a reply to your own ques- 
tion, Is it credible, that God should use the same 
word, in the same sentence [or connexion] in totally 
different senses ? If you answer, yes^ I grant it, and 
Paul gives the exception, expressing most forcibly, 
that but for this manifest exception^ even Jeho* 
vah, the self-existent author of the universe, would 
be included in the catalogue ! My intention is not to 
dwell on the glorious and soul-cheering topic at pre- 
sent. It is left for your consideration, in company 
with your rule for understanding it. — 

^' But the only fair rule of interpreta:^ion is to un- 
derstand words in their original and proper sense in all 
cases in which their meaning is not necessarily re- 
stricted by the subject or connexion. '' 

Should you find all to be necessarily restricted^ fur- 
ther than the exception noticed by the Apostle, you 
wall not fail to give the information. 

Yours, CANDIDUS. 



CANDID REVIEW. 



NOTE TO THE READER. 
In the closing paragraph of Letter 5. Mr. H, says, 
But I feel that I am detaining you too long on this 
criticisrq of words." Perhaps he was correct in the 
premises. / do not feel that they have been unneces- 
sarily detained in the present remarks. If words are 
the signs of ideas, the more clear these signs are made 
to our apprehension, the more certain will be our un- 
derstanding of the ideas thus communicated. If the 
reader has gained one step towards the truth by this 
iittempt, the writer will enjoy the satisfaction of having 
WTitten to good purpose, and the reader will not cer- 
tainly complain. As the Rev. author of the Letters 
has furnished the reader a note, recommending, " Ed- 
wards against Chauncey, Appleton's Lectures, and 
Dwight's Theology," as books with which Univer- 
salists would do well to be better acquainted," the 
readers of the Inquirer shall be furnished with an 
extract of the first named work soon, which will suffice 
for a specimen. In return for this advice, Mr. H. and 
his readers, and all others who dare to read an unan- 
swerable performance, are invited to read Balfour''^ 
Inquiry^ one volume of which contains more informa- 
tion, and more irrefutable argument, founded on invin- 
cible facts, than all orthodox publications since the 
dawn of time* 

K0.5. . 
m 

To Ret). Joel HawtSi^HartforcL 

Sir — In giving opinions, merely, a man may err 
from the truth, and honestly endeavour to maintair^ * 
sentiments which subsequent examination will deip.- 
^nstrate to be fallacious. To those who thus err, we 



84 



CANDID REVIEW. 



extend the hand of charity, for to them is appHcable 
the Latin adage, humanum est errare. But I deeply 
regret to say, that the tenor of your Letters, more 
deeply implicates the feelings of the heart, than the 
determination of the judgment. If, in narrating what 
you term facts (relative to the effects of Universalism) 
the departure from truth is so obvious as to be dis- 
covered at the first blush, what shall be said of the 
palpable departure from rectitude which is manifest 
in your mis-citations from scripture ! Let the follow- 
ing, from an orthodox publication,, reply to the ques- 
tion. 

It behoves us to guard against misquoting Scrip- 
ture, not only from reverence to Deity, but also, from 
regard to the cause of truth. If a misquotation be 
brought in support of error, so far as it has influence, 
truth must suffer by it. If it be adduced for the 
establishment of truth, when its inaccuracy is detect- 
ed, opponents will triumph as if the victory were gain- 
ed. She needs no such aids ; but stands more secure- 
ly without them."" 

I shall now quote a full paragraph from Letter V. 
the principal portion of which is garbled. The 
intelligent reader will recollect that several of these 
passages have been anticipated in a previous numbef, 
with remarks, exhibiting their misapplication. If this 
system of mutilation is proof of any theory, the time 
has come, when the scoff of infidehty is reduced to a 
self-evident proposition.— If a total disregard to the 
persons addressed, or* to whom the language applies^ 
the time to which it refers, and the connexion in which 
it is found— be all of no importance ; then is it true, 
that the Bible is an old instrument, on which any 
man can play the tune which best pleases him.'' I 
now request, that each reader will consider himself 
as a juror in a capital case, and reply as under the 
sanction of an oath-r-does the language of the cited 



CANDID REyiEW, 



&5 



paragraph, in a single instance, convey the definite 
idea of a future state ? If not, the theory of endless 
suffering must be reUnquished, or sought from some 
bther source. 

In the New Testament we read ©f those who 
shall be severed from the just ; who shall be cast into 
outer darkness ; who shall depart into everlasting 
fire ; who shall lose their souls ; who shall be destroy- 
ed soul and body in hell ; who shall not see life, but 
the wrath of God abideth on them ; they shall be shut 
out from Abraham and all the prophets ; the Judge at 
the EKD of the world [aion^ age, the Jewish dispensa- 
tion] shall send forth his angels, and gather them out 
of his kingdom, and cast them into a furnace of fire ; 
they are reserved unto the day of Judgment to be 
punished ; who shall be punished with everlasting 
destruction from the presence of the Lord and the 
glory of his power ; the smoke of their torment as- 
cendeth up for ever and ever ; they are bound hand 
and foot and cast into outer darkness ; they receive 
their good things, their portion in this life, and are 
tormented in the life to come ; an impassable gulf is 
placed between them and the blessed ; they die in 
their sins ; where Christ is gone they cannot come ; 
they never have forgiveness ; they shall come out of 
their graves unto the resurrection of damnation ; the 
mist of darkness is reserved to them for ever ; the 
heavens and the earth which now are, are kept in 
store, reserved unto fire against the day of Judgment 
and perdition of ungodly men ; God shall sendihem 
strong delusions that they should believe a lie, that 
they all might be damned who have pleasure in un- 
righteousness ; there is a sin unto death for which we 
are not to pray, and which shall not be forgiven, nei- 
ther in this world nor in the world to come ; their 
names shall be blotted out of the book of life ; they 
are clouds, carried with a tempest^ for which is re- 

8 



86 



CANDID REVIEW. 



served the blackness of darkness for ever ; the devil 
that deceived them shall be cast into the lake of fire 
and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet 
are, and they shall be tormented day and night for 
ever and ever ; and these shall go away into everlast- 
ing punishment.'' 

By a recurrence to the preceding number, the 
reader will perceive that all the strength of these pas- 
sages which is predicated on the words everlasting, 
for ever, and for ever and ever, is perfect impotence. 
That the term hell does not convey the idea of end- 
less misery has also been shown in part, from the 
most unquestionable authority. Every careful read- 
er of his Bible even in our vague and sometimes very 
imperfect translation, must see that this cannot be the 
meaning of this word, or certainly, not its uniform 
meaning. If he examines the use of the term damna- 
tion, he will find that equally indefinite. No scholar 
of credit will deny that the same word which is trans- 
lated damnation, is also rendered judgment. To as- 
certain how much importance is attached to the use 
of this word in the original, and how much people 
are deceived by the signification generally attached 
to it, a few examples are annexed. 

^' For judgment I am come into this world.'' John 
9 : 3^9. Read for damnation," and let your own 
ear judge. " For the time is come that judgment 
must begin at the house of God." 1 Pet. 4: 17. 
Now say, damnation must begin at the house of God, 
and fhake your own commentary. Let every reader 
of the Bible carefully attend to the passages in which 
judgment and damnation are found, and further illus- 
tion will be unnecessary. 

Without entering at the present time more fully into 
the value or understanding of any of those quotations 
which prove, extra contfoversia, that, either with or 
without intent, you have handled the word of God 



©ANDID REVIEW. 



S7 



cYeceitfally, — the subject will be left with a pledge, 
that when you or any other person, will attempt to 
prove by any one citation, that the system of endless 
mysery is true, the subject shall receive the most re- 
spectful attention. 

Passing in silence over a vast number of tortured 
quotations, and much disgraceful sophistry and false 
assertion, I come to the case of Judas — a case which 
seems sufficient to glut the omniverous appetite of 
even an Edwards. In dwelling on this theme, it 
seem,s that the ears of the orthodox are almost ravish- 
ed with the yells'of the damned, and that their eyes 
are feasted in imagination, with the sight of one at 
least, who is placed in a state of torment from which 
can be no release, and to whom hope can never come. 
A short quotation from Letter VL will serve as a 
specimen of what you say respecting him, and Uni- 
versalits. 

" Before I close the testimony from scripture, let 
me request you to consider attentively the case of 
Judas vfho was denominated by our Saviour, the son 
of perdition, and who having betrayed his Lord, was 
driven by remorse, not by true repentance, as some 
Universalists affirm, to hang himself that he might go 
to his own place." 

Among other misrepresentations noticed in the In- 
quirer, two years ago, this is one ; and you seem to 
come under the denomination of those, who, being 
often reproved, and hardening the neck, shall sudden- 
ly be destroyed, and that without remedy. The fol- 
lowing is a transcript from the piece to which I allude : 

Judag, alas ! poor Judas, the strong case in proof of 
endless misery, also cam.e in for his share of abuse. 
Besides being fixed in hell for ever (or endlessly) he 
was also misquoted. Now as it is not said that he 
'^hanged himself and went to his own place,'' in the 
.scriptures, we will just inquire vrhether he hanged 



88 



CANDID REVIEW. 



himself at ^11. It is hoped Mr. H. will examine his 
Greek Testament in this instance/^ As you utterly 
rejected the hint here given, and others which were 
offered with a view to set you right, every reader has 
a right to conclude, that truth is not your object. — 
Were you as fully disposed to know and propagate 
the truth, as you are to dissemminate error by its fal- 
sification, we should not witness the repetition of a 
misstatement, which must revert on your own head. 
If you know no better, your ignorance is equalled only 
by the insolence with which you reiterate an asser- 
tion, for which you have already been rebuked by a 
layman, possessing not a fiftieth part of your opporiu- 
nity for a knowledge of the Greek, I profess not a 
general acquaintance with the language ; but, as far 
as the present subject is concerned, I fear not an ap- 
peal to the literary public. 

That the criticism relating to Judas may come be- 
fore us in the most unambiguous manner, the only two 
places which speak of his death will be given and 
compared. That found in Mat. 27 : 3, 4, 5, in the 
common version, reads as follows : 

Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he 
saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and 
brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief 
priests and elders, saying, I have sinned in that I have 
betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, what is 
that to us ? see thou to that. And he cast down the 
pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and 
went and hanged himself." 

It is obvious that the translators here say that he 
hanged himself. In Acts. 1 : 18, 19, the account 
stands thus : 

^' Now this man purchased a field with the reward 
of iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst asunder in 
the midst, and all his bowels gushed out And it was 
known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem ; insomuck 



CANDID review; 



as 



as that field is called in their proper tongue, Acelda- 
ma, that is to say, the field of blood.'' 

Admitting this to be all that we could know on the 
subject, still your deduction would be a palpable ab- 
surdity. How an evident conclusion can be drawn 
from two statements so manifestly different, is not 
easy to imagine, and far less can we determine that 
Judas was driven by remorse, not by true repent- 
ance," to return the wages of iniquity. As to his re- 
pentance, I think few will be found either in or out of 
churches, whose actions more clearly demonstrate the 
sincerity of their regret for an act which has resulted 
in evil. As to the terms remorse and repentance, you 
have made a distinction without a material difference- 
If remorse is the pain of guilt, it is most obviously sor- 
row for sin, and the first step towards newness of life* 
We may be said to regret the doing of wrong, though 
it were committed in ignorance, while repentance for 
transgression of a known rule of right, must evidently 
be accompanied by remorse. But the malversation is 
too obvious to escape any rational mind, not fettered 
down to ignorance by the thraldom of tradition. 

Perhaps a careful survey of the conduct of the dis- 
ciples will tend to remove some prejudices from the 
minds of those who are not "willingly ignorant." — 
They were all perjured. After affirming with much 
confidence that they would sooner perish with Jesus 
than forsake him, they all forsook him and fled, 
Christ called Peter Satan, and Judas a devil. True, 
Peter went out and wept bitterly," and Judas re- 
turned the money, which was most certainly as true a 
mark of sincerity as was displayed by Peter. If he 
wept bitterly, why not place him with Judas, and in- 
sist, that instead of being true repentance, the weep- 
ing was occasioned by remorse! But besides tJiis, 
Judas is said to have repented himself, of which not 
a word is said respecting Peter. But, do you really 



90 CANDID REVIEW. 



believe that Christ's friends will be rejected, and con- 
signed to remediless wo ? Christ calls Judas friend. 
at the moment when he was betrayed. But how is it 
possible that one should be so deceived, or attempt so 
to deceive others, with the Bible in his hand, as to 
assert, or intimate, that Judas, who was dead, and the 
apostle who was to be chosen as his successor, were 
identically the same being ? To awaken your appre- 
hension on this point, Acts 1 : 20 to 25 inclusive, 
will here be inserted : 

^' For it is written in the book of Psalms, let his hab- 
itation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein : and^ 
his bishoprick let another take. Wherefore, of 
these men which have companied with us all the 
time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 
beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same 
day that he was taken up from us, must one be or- 
dained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. — 
And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, 
who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. And they 
prayed, and said, thou, Lord, which knowest the 
hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou 
hast chosen, that he may take part of this ministry 
and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression 
fell, that he might go to his own place.*" 

I have cited thus much, that no man can rationally 
doubt the fairness of the quotation. That the Ae, who 
might go to his own place, alluded to the man upoti 
whom the lot should fall, is too evident to controvert. 
Judas did not live to see the crucifixion of Christ, and 
the 3d verse of this chapter furnishes evidence that 
not less than forty days had elapsed since the resur- 
rection, before the eleven determined to choose an 
apostle in the room of Judas. What then had the 
choice of an apostle to do with Judas ? Was he de- 
tained by fhe election of a successor, from going to 
his owp place ? Depend upon it, that "if a misquo- 



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n 



tation be brought in support of error, so far as it has 
influence, truth must suffer by it;'' and that truth 
stands more securely without such palpable insults 
to the understanding of your readers. By what 
means you determine that Judas is the Son of perdi- 
tion, we have yet to be informed. 

As to what " some Universalists affirm,'' respect- 
ing Judas, so far as respects his repentance, it certain- 
ly stands on as tenable ground as your assertion.— 
The marks of true repentance are precisely such as 
are considered conclusive evidence of sincerity iri 
your church, though it is well known that few exhibit 
their repentance in so strong a point of light. But I 
need not long insist, that testimony which clashes in 
any material point, is utterly futile. That the com- 
mon versions of these two passages entirely disagree 
in relating the manner of the death of Judas, is too 
clear a point to urge, and of course, as far as the 
translation is concerned, your conclusion is complete- 
ly neutralized. For further light on this subject, we 
will now refer to the Greek, to which your attention 
has already been called. — My object is to show, that 
in neither of the places in which the death of Judas is 
mentioned, do the inspired writers use the term which 
signifies hanged. In the first instance. Matt. 27 : 5« 
the word is apegxato, definition, suffocated. And in 
Acts 1 : 18, the word is prenes^ translated, falling 
headlong. But an examination of Acts 5 : 30, will 
show that kremasantes is the word correctly rendered 
hanged or suspended. Thus, neither the account in 
Matthew, nor that in Acts, give the least colour to 
the assertion that Judas committed suicide. 

But. as you seem to dwell on this case with consider- 
able confidence, to quote what you say further on the 
subject, with accompanying remarks, may not be 
amiss. 



02 



CANDID REVIEW. 



Wo to that man by whom the Son of man is be- 
trayed. It had been good for that man if he had 
never been born. How can this be true if universal- 
ism is not false ? If all men are to be saved, it can 
be truly said of no one of our race, it had been good 
for him never to have been born. For whatever he 
may endure for a season, whether in this or in the life 
to come, the eternal happiness of heaven will infinite- 
ly outweigh it, and render existence to him an infi- 
nite blessing. Is Judas in heaven ? Will he ever be 
there and dwell there for ever? How then is he 
lost — how then had it heengood for him never to have 
been born ? How would nonexistence be a blessing 
to him who is to be eternally happy in heaven ?" 

Because Christ said, Wo to that man by whom the 
Son of man is betrayed, are we to infer that an endless 
state of suffering must be his lot ? A pi ophet says, 
Wo is me, for I am a man of unclean lips, and Je- 
sus denounced a wo upon women who should be 
with child, and those who should give suck in the 
time when Jerusalem should be destroyed ; and well 
he might, when he described the distress which should 
then happen, as greater than any which had occurred, 
or which should happen. But does this imply endless 
misery, either here or in any other place ? Among 
all the dreadful woes prophetically denounced in the 
Apocalypse, not one allusion is made to endless mise* 
ry. Nor does the expression, Good were it for that 
man if he had not been born,'' either directly or in- 
directly intimate a state of being beyond the grave, 
and much less a state of ceaseless misery. If you ob- 
ject to NOT in the room of never, you will be pleas- 
ed to inquire whether ouk is properly translated 
never. If you sometimes appear to dread a logoma- 
chy, it may fairly be imputed less to the subject, than 
to the effect vdiich a close examination of the use of 
words will produce on the cause you have espoused 



CANDID REVIEW. 



But you deliberately ask, how can this be true, If 
universalism is not false If so, though you evi- 
dently did not expect a reply, you shall receive it. — 
And iirst— nothing in the connexion intimates that 
the birth of which Jesus spoke was a natural birth, 
any more than in his discourse with Nicodemus ; nor 
is it seen how he could be a man, to receive either 
good or ill, without the natural birth. To be the re- 
cipient of good, he m.ust evidently have existence, and 
<;apability of enjoyment. If the birth to which Christ 
here alluded were spiritual, the mystery is no longer a 
secret. John, speaking of Jesus, says, " But as many 
as received him, to them gave he power to become 
the sons of God, to them that believe on his name ; 
which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the 
flesh, nor of the v/iil of man, but of God.'^ Whether 
Judas was thus born, we shall see in the sequel. 

No man will dispute that Judas was one of the 
twelve. This fact is beyond dispute, but not more 
so, than the evidence that he was an accepted disci- 
ple, and that he executed the commission given him 
by Christ, Mat. 10 : with the other disciples, when he 
" gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast 
them out, and to heal all manner of sickness, and all 
manner of diseases." Judas was specially named, 
and sent out with the others as sheep in the midst 
of wolves." Matthew and Mark inform us, not only 
that Christ brake the bread, and gave the cup, but that 
*'they all drank of it and Jesus is represented by 
John as saying — Whoso eateth my flesh, and drink- 
eth my blood, hath eternal life ; and I will raise him 
up at the last day.'' If this is not as good evidence 
of salvation for Judas, as for the other disciples, it is 
sincerely hoped that we may learn wherein. — But 
why not condemn Peter to remediless wo ? See the 
testimony in his case, and then say how you can more 
consistently condemn the one than the other. Peter: 



94 



CANDID REVIEW. 



denied Christ with an oath, and the words of Christ 
are — " He that denieth me before men, shall be de- 
nied before the angels of God." If this strong lan- 
guage points to a state of interminable suffering, where 
is your hope for Peter, or indeed for any of the disci- 
ples ? Not an intimation is given, that an iota shall be 
taken from this denunciation on account of weeping 
bitterly ; why not then include all in the common con- 
demnation? — But, perhaps, it may still be urged, how 
could the want of this new birth have tended to the 
good of Judas ? Ans. For if, after they have esca- 
ped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge 
of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again 
entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is 
worse with them than the beginning. For it had been 
better for them not to have known the way of right- 
eousness, than after they have known, to tarn from 
the holy commandment delivered unto them. '''^ it is 
then very obvious that this idea of the subject per* 
fectly corresponds with the words of Christ, while the 
idea of good received by a nonentity is utterly pre- 
posterous. Your question respecting Judas— ^' How 
then is he lost," predicated on the supposition that he 
will ultimately enjoy the smiles of heaven, is perfectly 
absurd. Not an iota of evidence have you brought 
forward, to show the loss of Judas, more than that of 
every other human intelligence. Was he lost in any 
other sense than all of the Adamic family ? All who 
wander from God are lost, and for the purpose of re- 
storing these lost souls to the true fold, was Christ 
manifested ; for he came to seek and to save that 
which was lost. Paul says, that this is a faithfal say- 
ing, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus 
came into the world to save sinners, of whom 1 am 
-chief. But we have a more direct testimony than 
this, He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins, shall 
obtain mercy." Judas confessed his sin — he made 



CANDID REVIEW. 



do 



all the reparation in his power ; he returned, and 
boldly and honestly defended the innocence of his 
master, and every circumstance serves to confirm the 
proposition, that finding all his efforts to save his 
master inffectual, he died — ^his feelings overpowered 
him : — he fell a victim to his returned affection, and 
was suffocated with his grief.'' Much other testimo- 
ny could be adduced, but the present is deemed more 
than sufficient to answer your question. Numerous 
instances of a similar nature are on record, and he 
who doubts that the strength of mental feelings, has 
in many instances deprived people of life, is prepared 
to doubt the most evident physical facts, and the most 
demonstrable proposition. — Your last question on the 
case of Judas argues an inconsistency in your own 
ideas on the subject, which will be briefly noticed. 
You ask, " How would non-existence be a blessing to 
him who is to be eternally happy in heaven ?" The 
discrepancy of this paradoxical query with common 
sense, is a result flowing from the incorrect under- 
standing of the language of Christ. The idea of a 
blessing conferred on non-existence^ by its being suf- 
fered to remain a non-entity^ is a proposition of your 
own, and remains for you to soU^e. The light in 
which I have viewed the words of Christ, lead to no 
absurdity in the conclusion. Good cannot be enjoy- 
ed by a hfeless clod of earth, and that which is capa- 
ble of feeling mast have existence. But the weak- 
ness of your question requires no further arguments — 
it is palpable to a very moderate understanding. If 
a system requires a perversion of the words of Christ, 
which renders them ridiculously absurd, those who 
are so wedded to sentiment as to approve such a 
course, answer well to the description of the imbecile 
of whom Solomon says, though he be brayed in a 
mortar with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness de- 
part from him* Yours, 

CANDIDUS. 



96 



CANDID REVIEW. 



NO. 9. 

To Rev. Joel Hawes^ — Hartford. 

Sir — In passing over your production, my attention 
has been arrested by a portion of the eighth Letter, m 
which you endeavour to estabUsh the fact and the 
time of a general judgment, beyond the possibihty of 
doubt.'^ Language so positive led me to examine the 
subject with some particularity, and the result of my 
labours will furnish matter for the present opportunity. 
The steps by which I arrived at the conclusion will 
be laid before you, with as much brevity as the im- 
portance of the subject will permit. The following 
quotation contains what you appear to consider as 
abundant proof ; this will now be examined. 

" I shall close this part of my subject, with request- 
ing your particular attention to two passages of scrip- 
ture which appear to me to establish the fact and the 
time of a general judgment beyond the possibility of a 
doubt. It is appointed unto men once to die, and, 
[but] after this the judgment. The hour is coming, 
in the which all that are in the graves, shall hear his 
voice, and shall come forth ; they that have done good 
unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done 
evil unto the resurrection of damnation. These passa- 
ges are plain and decisive : and though I might pity 
and pray for the man who, after having read them, 
should deny a future judgment, I should not attempt 
to convince him. If he beheve not God, he would 
not be convinced by man/' 

The disingenuous mode of quoting the scriptures 
which you have seen proper to adopt, has already 
been a subject of animadversion, and I regret to say, 
that the present instance is marked by an evidence of 
design, so palpable, that one must read his Bible with 
the utmost negligence, not to perceive it* Those who 



CANDID REVIEW. 



97 



read with an intention to arrive at the truth, will read- 
ily determine, whether such an obvious dissociation of 
language results from a desire to promote the cause of 
righteousness. The first of these passages which yoa 
term plain and decisive^ commences, as may be obser- 
ved, in the midst of a sentence, and concludes in a 
very objectionable manner, by omitting the concluding 
member, without which the former is utterly incom- 
prehensible. Are you willing to risk your character 
as a scholar, on such a palpable violation of the just 
rules of interpretation — or to dislimb a sentence in 
this manner, without the least regard to the grammat- 
ical connexion? — and are you not aware that this 
system will support Atheistical principles as certainly 
as C hristians ? 

The first quotation is clipped out of its connexion^ 
Heb. 9 : 27. That and its succeeding context read as 
follows ; 

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but 
after this the judgment ; so Christ was once offered to 
bear the sins of many ; and unto them that look for 
him shall he appear the second time without sin unto 
salvation.'' 

It is not a little remarkable, that you have substitu- 
ted the copulative and, instead of the disjunctive but ; 
and yet, garbled and interpolated as it is, you present 
it as a plain and decisive passage, and by way of 
strengthening it, add — and though I might pity and 
pray for the man who, after having read them, should 
deny a future judgment, I should not attempt to con- 
vince him." As to the substitution of and for but^ I 
shall merely remark, that if it were not designed, you 
will do well to read your Bible more, and the systems 
of men less, before you shall again introduce a distor- 
ted passage in support of a sentiment, so deeply affec- 
ting the character of God, and the happiness of his 
offspring. Perhaps no people bearing the Christian 

9 



98 



CANDID REVIEW. 



name, are so often and so causelessly accused of mis- 
quoting scripture as Universalists. With how good a 
grace this charge comes from you, without a fact 
offered in its support, will be seen when the charge 
shall be brought to your door. 

If you understand the relative use of as and so^ 
used in the forecited passage, your own conscience 
must convict you of gross malversation, or the most 
consummately stupid negligence. As it is appointed — 
so Christ. So, what ? Why, according to your mode 
of argumentation, as men die a natural death, and are 
afterwards judged to endless misery — ^o, in like man- 
ner, Christ is or must be judged in a post mortem state 
of existence. Revolting as this must appear, it is a 
fair, nay, an indisputable conclusion from your prem- 
ises. The absurdity of this deduction is so obvious, 
that we will seek for a better — a worse will not proba- 
bly come in our way. 

But before attempting to elucidate the subject by 
examining its connexion, let us examine its length and 
breadth as applied in defence of your theorem. To 
give every advantage to this hypothetical use of the 
text, we shall admit the proposition, that the phrase 
after this the judgment^^' signifies, that all men, after 
the dissolution of the body, are to undergo a judicial 
trial, and consequent sentence. In this view of the 
argument, we must understand the terms judgment and 
eondemnation^ as synonomous, and as a brief mode of 
expressing the phrase, endless inisery. To allow less 
than this would render its use in support of your sys- 
tem a mere nullity ; to allow the meaning suggested 
would prove too much, and destroy every distinction, 
by resulting in universal damnation. Every one who 
reads the text must perceive that the apostle makes no 
distinction, and if the text is any thing to the purpose, 
the subjects of the judgment, and those of natural 
death, are identically the same, and equinumerant^ 



CANDID REVIEW. 9^ 



Let us concede, then, that the citation expresses the 
doctrine for which you contend, and the result is as 
dreadful as the most sanguine advocate for the diffu- 
sion of misery could desire. 

But leaving this self-destructive view of the subject, 
let us turn to the sure word of prophecy, and search 
for the true meaning of the passage thus wrested to 
your own destruction. In doing this, we shall find the 
harmony of the scripture resulting in the blessing of 
God on the whole human family, to which examina- 
tion your attention is now solicited. 

This epistle appears to have been written hy a He- 
brew, of the Hebrew^s, and to the Hebrews. To the 
Jews he exhibited himself as a Jew, by quoting their 
rituals, and appealing to the prophecies which they 
acknowledged, for the proof of Christianity ; and thus 
he demonstrated in the most lucid manner, that the 
legal ceremonies were but a shadow of good things"^^ 
to come."" After drawiui^ a parallel between the 
Abrahamic covenant and the Christian — the priests 
under the law, and Christ, he shows by the text, that, 
as by the typical cleansing of the high priest under 
the law, the judgment of the people was life ; 50, 
Christ really suffered that death which was shadowed 
under the law, that he might cleanse the people by 
better sacrifices, to the possession of the blessings of 
the New Covenant. The difference between the two 
covenants is represented in the 8th chapter thus ; 

For finding fault with them, [the Jews] he saith, 
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will 
make a new covenant with the house of Israel and 

The reader, by examining* the whole epistle, will discover 
that the apostle is labouring- to turn the attention of his brethren 
from the Jewish ceremonial law, which was annulled for the 
weakness and onprofitableness thereof, ^oHhe Christian dispen- 
sation, the substance which was merely shadowed by the rituals 
of the Mosaic economy. 



100 CANDID REVIEW. 



with the house of Judah ; not according to the cove- 
nant that I made with their fathers, in the day when I 
took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of 
Egypt ; because they continued not in my covenant, 
and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this 
is the covenant that I will make with the house of Is- 
rael after those days, saith the Lord ; I will put my 
laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts ; 
and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a 
people ; and they shall not teach every man his neigh- 
bour, and every man his brother, saying. Know the 
Lord, for all shall know me, from the least to the 
greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteous- 
ness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remem- 
ber no more.'' 

We here discover the excellency of the 7iew^ in 
comparison with the old covenant ; and observe the 
vast superiority of the high-priest of our profession, 
over those of the Aaronic dispensation. In drawing 
the parallel, the apostle is careful to inform us, that 
in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made 
of sins every year.'' To show that the ceremonial 
purification by the blood of bulls, and of goats, and 
the sprinkling with the ashes of an heifer was merely 
typical, and that the preference given to the christian 
dispensation was for a good reason, he gives us facts, 
and draws inferences, in the following language ; 

For Christ is not entered into the holy places made 
with hands, which are the figures of the true ; but into 
heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God 
for us ; nor yet that he should offer himself often, as 
the high priest entereth into the holy place every year 
with blood of others ; for then must he often have 
suffered since the foundation of the world ; [age] but 
now once in the end of the world [age] hath he ap- 
peared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." 



CANDID REVIEW. 



101 



That this is in close connexion with the text quoted 
by you, is evident by the mode of expression. In the 
one place we read that Christ was once offered to bear 
the sins of many [the multitudes] ; in the other that 
he came to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 
This then is the life of the new and better covenant, 
established upon better promises, and ending in a more 
glorious result. We see here the good things which 
were typically shadowed under the ceremonial law. 
See Exod. 28 : 29, 30, in which we mxay observe the 
coincidence between the passages under consideration. 

'' And Aaron shall bear the names of the children 
of Israel in the breast-plate of judgment upon his 
heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place ^ for a 
memorial before the LORD continually. And thou 
shalt put in the breast-plate of judgment the Urim and 
the Thummim ; and they shall be upon Aaron's heart, 
when he goeth in before the LORD ; and Aaron 
shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon 
his heart before the LORD continually.'' 

Biblical students have studied to little purpose w^ho 
remain ignorant of the expressive rituals of the Mosaic 
dispensation. Under that economy the high-priest 
entered into the holy of holies, once every year, bear- 
ing the breast-plate of judgment^ the urim and the 
thummim, or lights and perfections, on which were 
engraven the names of the twelve tribes. He appear- 
ed before the mercy-seat for the justification of all 
the children of Israel. That this was merely typical 
of the justification of all both Jew and Gentile, is abun- 
dantly evident by the words of the same apostle, w^ho, 
in writing to the Romans, and mentioning both classes 
in the connexion, says, For all have sinned and come 
short of the glory of God ; being justified freely by his 
grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.*' 
The old covenant was therefore a partial dispensation, 
consisting of carnal ordinances, and as a covenant of 

9"^ 



J02 



CANDID REVIEW. 



works, was abolished to make room for the more per^ 
feet dispensation denominated the new covenant, of 
which Christ Was the messenger and mediator. As 
under the old dispensation the people continued not 
in the covenant, the new covenant was promised, un- 
der which God says " all shall know me from the least 
to the greatest/' The reason given for the accom- 
plishment of this promise rests in the fidelity of the 
God of- truth — " I will be to them a God, and they 
SHALL be to me a people." You will not deny the 
ceremonial purification of all the people represented 
by the high-priest in the sanctum sanctorum, most cer- 
tainly ; with what colour of argument, then, do you 
deny the efficacy of the atonement of Christ, the 
head of every man — the head over all things to the 
ehurch, — ^the fulness of him that filleth all in all ? 

As no man who is not absolutely mad, can doubt 
that the text in question is a part of the parallel be- 
tween the Mosaic and the Christian dispensations, I 
shall now only show that the tenor of scripture war- 
rants the assertion made in a former part of this num- 
ber. If the high-priest, as is very evident, died in 
figure when he went into the holy of holies, with blood 
of others, and represented a resurrection to life by his 
safe return — were, or were not, all whom he repre- 
sented, typically cleansed ? The reasoning of the author 
of the text is a conclusive answer. — " How much more 
shall the blood of Christ — cleanse your conscience 
from dead works, that ye may serve the living God 
If then, the priestly office of Christ, is to the Mosaic 
rituals, as the substance is to the shadow^ let us inquire 
for whom^ and for what Christ died. The same epis- 
tle, chap. 2. gives the information. 

^' But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower 
than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned 
with glory and honour, that he, by the grace of God, 
gbould taste death for every aian.. For it becajaae him*^ 



CANDID REVIEW. fOS 



for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, 
in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain 
of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both 
he that sanctitieth and they who are sanctified are all 
of one ; for which cause he is not ashamed to call 
them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto 
my brethren ; in the midst of the church will I sing 
praise unto thee. And again, I will put my trust in 
him. And again, Behold I and the children which 
God hath given me. Forasmuch then as the children 
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself like- 
wise took part of the same ; that through death he 
might destroy him that had the power of death, that 
is, the devil ; And deliver them who through fear of 
death were all their life-time subject to bondage. For 
verily he took not on him the nature of angels 5 but 
he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in 
all things it behoved him to be made like unto his 
brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful 
High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make re- 
conciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he 
himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to 
succour them that are tempted.'' 

If the quotations in this Number are very full, they 
need no excuse. When such utter inattention is man- 
ifested in your production, both to the letter and spirit 
of scripture, the inference is fair, that others, with less 
opportunities than those which you possess, are also 
ignorant and inattentive. But to return to the subject. 
We see for whom he tasteth death — every man. — 
We see he is termed the Captain of their salvation. 
His object was to destroy that death which is the con- 
sequence of sin, as well as the devil [impostor] who 
had the power of this death ; and by this means to 
deliver " them who through fear of death, were all 
their life time gubject to bondage," [slavery.] 



104 



CANDID REVIEVr. 



That the new covenant embraces eternal life^ is not 
an assumption by impUcation. If all shall know God 
from the least to the greatest, and if his laws shall be 
written in their hearts, then will the prayer of Christ 
be fulfilled. See John 17 : 2, 3. 

As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that 
he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast 
given him. And this is life eternal, that they might 
know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom 
thou hast sent/' 

That all fie sh includes the whole family of man, is 
evidfent, because the heathen are his inheritance, and 
the uttermost parts of the earth are 'his possession. 
For these unnumbered multitudes he tasted death, as 
the mediator of the new covenant, which promised 
the knowledge of God to all m.en. For these, his 
brethren, he tasted death, to fulfil the will of God, 

by the which will we are sanctified, through the of- 
fering of the body of Jesus Christ once.*' Under the 
law, the priests offered continually, those sacrifices 
which could not make the comers thereto perfect. 
But Christ made perfect vi^ork, and shall therefore be 
exalted by being given a name which is above every 
other name, that, (for this purpose) in the name of 
Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and 
those on tne earth, and those under the earth ; and 
that every tongue should confess, that Jesus Christ is 
Lord, to the glory of God the father. This is the 
glorious consummation recorded by Paul in his epistle 
to the Ephesians, in the follov^iiig words ; 

Having made known unto us the mystery of his 
will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath 
purposed in himself: that in the dispensation of the 
fulness of times he might gather together in one all 
things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which 
are on earth ; even in him.'' 



CANDID REVIEW. 



105 



This also harmonizes with the exhortation of the 
apostle to Timothy, and furnishes a strong reason for 
the precept given. 

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, 
prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made 
for all men ; for kings, and for all that are in authority ; 
that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all god^ 
liness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable 
in the sight of God our Saviour ; who will have all 
men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the 
truth. For there is one God and one mediator be- 
tween God and men, the man Christ Jesus ; who gave 
himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.'' 

We have seen that Christ tasted death for all, for 
every man, and we perceive the object. We also 
learn by the prophet Isaiah, that he shall see the trav- 
ail of his soul and be satisfied ; and we perceive that 
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand, and 
we discover what that pleasure is, viz. the gathering 
of all things in Christ, the bowing of all in his name to 
the glory of God, and the fulfilment of the law of love 
in every heart, which is eternal hfe. 

If I have succeeded in showing that the death no- 
ticed in the text, is the typical death of the high-priest 
under the law, the conclusion deduced is beyond the 
reach of contradiction. But, if in the face of the 
whole epistle, as well as contrary to the immediate 
connexion, you still maintain the reverse, you have a 
clue to the subject which would render every passage 
in the scriptures as uncertain as the responses of a 
heathen oracle. But while we profess, as Protestants, 
to take the Bible as the man of our counsel, let us lis- 
ten to its dictates, and either allow with Mr. Locke, 
that the Bible must be judged by reason, or give it up 
as unreasonable. — If it is written so aphoristically, that 
none but the gifted few can unseal its meaning, put- 
ting it into the hands of the laity is no better than the 



106 



CANDID REVIE#. 



laws of Nero, which were indeed written, hut posted 
so high, that to read them was impossible. 

1 have now closed the argument on this text for the 
present ; and so far am I from finding any support for 
your doctrine, that I glory in it, as one which precisely 
suits my purpose, by establishing the doctrine of Uni- 
versal Salvation. By your own concession, I am en- 
titled to your pity and your prayeio — hut, as I deny 
that the quotation alludeg to your idea of a future judg- 
ment—you will not of course, again attempt to con- 
vince me. If this is the strongest pointy as you intii 
mate, of what avail are those which are inferior ? 

In the next, I purpose to examine the remaining 
passage already quoted from your 8th Letter. Wish- 
ing you more prudence and better conduct, I remairLj 
vour well wisher, ' 

CANDIDUS. 

HO. 10. 

To Rev. Joel Hawes^ — Hartford^ 

In the ninth number, the first of those texts which 
you quote to establish the fact and the time, of a 
general judgment," was fairly examined. The in- 
vestigation exhibited that passage as speaking a lan- 
guage, and pointing to a subject, entirely diverse from 
that under contemplation, and therefore is utterly 
destitute of power to strengthen that which will now 
be examined. Whether the remaining text is capable 
of sustaining the whole weight of your declaration re. 
spectingboth in connexion, is the question before us. 
But I should do injustice to the subject, by failing to 
Botice, that this is also dissociated from its connexion, 
commencing as did the former, in the midst of a sen- 



CANDID REVIEW. 



fence. This is not a speculation — a mere opinion ; 
it is so obvious, that no person who can read his Bi- 
ble need be ignorant of the fact. How then, you can 
stand justified, in calhng these two passages plain and 
decisive, while they are presented to the public in this 
garbled state, is a question for others to answer, 

" Crude Imposition's like a Bow that's bent, 

To twang an Arrow with an iU intent, 

Which being shot, the impenetrable mark 

Rebounds it back, and wounds the marksman's heart.'' 

The following is your misquotation. " The hour 
is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall 
hear his voice, and shall come forth ; they that have 
done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that 
have done evil unto the ressurrection of damnation."'^ 

A fair and convincing method of testing the worth 
of an argument, is to reduce it to practice, and thus 
bring it home to our business and bosoms. When a 
court or jury can be found, who will decide a case on 
the force of testimony as inconclusive, and as partial 
as that under consideration, we shall consider the ex- 
ample, and inquire into the reasons of the decision. 

You evidently look at this text in what may be 
termed its literal sense, and in this sense it will be 
examined, completely isolated from its connexion. 
If, in granting it this latitude, it come short of your 
purpose, or prove too much, it must certainly be re- 
linquished. The time, then, is the general resurrec- 
tion. They that have done good, rise to life ; life 
implies existence. — without including the idea of plea- 
sure or pain, happiness or misery. Thej live, and 
our information concerning them extends no further. 
They that have done evil to the resurrection of dam- 
nation. Allowing your idea of damnation, and we 
are utterly at a loss, who are the damned. You may 
answer, they that have done evil. Granted ; but who 



108 



CANDID REVIEW. 



have done evil ? Ans. " All have sinned, and come 
short of the glory of God.'' But you object to this 
sweeping clause. Some, you will urge, have repent- 
ed. True, but had they not done evil, they needed 
not to repent. To repent is to return, and those can- 
not return, who never strayed. If this passage be 
plain and decisive, all who have done evil are the sub- 
jects of damnation, for no salvo is found in the text. 
Nothing is said regarding the finally impenitent, (a 
class about which the Bible is silent) nor is a word 
said about the grace of God, nor yet about those who 
are to be saved in their sins, by being pardoned, and 
exonerated from the miseries to which their trans- 
gressions have made them liable. Have you, or any 
of your friends, done evil ? then does this plain, this 
decisive text, fix yonr state beyond the pale of mercy, 
where hope never comes ; and remember, there the 
Bible leaves you V Thus, according to your under- 
standing of this passage, universal damnation is as 
surely supported, as the damnation of a single soul. 
They that have done evil — not a portion of them, 
are the subjects of damnation. 

But 1 anticipate an objection in this place. You 
would agree that the fair understanding of the passage 
is, that those who may be termed virtuous, in contra- 
distinction from the vicious, will not be the victims of 
this damnation ; or in other words, that the balance 
of good or evil in an account current, must be the 
criterion of decision. On this ground, an impercepti- 
ble line, an imaginary barrier, a single fault, endlessly 
divides two persons, whose lots, agreeable to your 
theory, are infinitely different. One is destined to 
enjoy all the felicity which God can bestow, and the 
other to suffer all which he can inflict. Is this exag- 
geration ? if so, inform me wherein. Is this the equal 
" retribution of eternity 



CANDID HEVIEW. 



t09 



But how does this reward according to works (if 
such it may be called) agree with another part of 
your system ? You persist in saving some, who have 
done little else but evil, with all their sins in full array 
against them, through the pardon of God ; which is 
to save them m their sins, and from their deserts. 
How can both be true ? Does the damnation of those 
who have done evil, without the shadow of redeeming 
mercy, accord with this sentiment ? In your eager- 
ness to prevent the salvation of all, you have most 
certainly committed yourself and your system. When 
deprecating the " slang of Universalists," did you 
contemplate the medley of absurdities to which your 
zeal was giving currency ? 

It is possible, however, that in the face of all these 
self-evident contradictions, you will maintain the lit- 
eral meaning of this isolated passage. You will there- 
fore represent the passage as the words of Christ, and 
insist that condemnation awaited him who should 
wrest these words to any other than a literal sense. 
Be it so. On this ground let us try how the language 
of the succeeding chapter, (John 6) will support the 
Catholic and Lutherean doctrine of transubstantia^ 
tion. 

" For the bread of God is he which cometh down 
from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.'' 

"The Jews then murmured at him, because he 
said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.'' 
And no wonder they murmured, for they understood 
him literally. Did he undeceive them ? No, he con- 
firmed them by adding-— 

" 1 am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat 
manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the 
bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man 
may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread 
which came down from heaven ; if any man eat of 
*his bread, he shall Uve for ever ; aud the bread that 

10 



110 CANDID REVIEW. 



I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of 
the world. The Jews therefore strove among them- 
selves, saying. How can this man give us his flesh to 
eat.'' 

As the Jews still understood him in a literal sense, 
no wonder they asked the question, how can this 
man give us his flesh to eat V But what was the re- 
ply ? Read for yourself. 

Then Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say 
unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, 
and drink his blood, ye have no hfe in you. Whoso 
eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal 
life ; and 1 will raise him up at the last day. For my 
jfiesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 
He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwel- 
leth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath 
sent me and 1 live by the Father, so he that eateth 
me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread 
which came down from heaven ; not as your fathers 
did eat manna, and are dead ; he that eateth of this 
Bread shall live forever.''' 

That this strong, and increasingly literal language 
was understood by the apostles in the same sense in 
which the Jews understood it, is evident from the 
context : Many therefore of his disciples, when they 
had heard this^ said, this is an hard saying, who can 
hear it?" 1 ask, now, in what manner you will avoid 
the conclusion, that the leal presence is in the eucha- 
rist, or the conclusion that all who have lived since 
the days of Christ have utterly perished ? Look at the 
strength of the language, and see how much the sub- 
ject is magnified by Christ, after the expression of as- 
tonishment by the Jews. Now look the Bible through^ 
and find, if you can^ such a concatenation of testimo* 
nies for the doctrine of unending misery. Still this is 
far from all which can easily be produced on the sub- 
ject And yet, you dispute the Catholics, and by 



CANDID REVIEW. 



Ill 



short verse, put them to silence. And how? " It is 
the spirit that qiiickeneth ; the flesh profiteth nothing ; 
the words that 1 speak unto you, they are spirit, and 
they are hfe," In this case you are very willing to 
take the whole context, and ascertain in that way, 
that the language is figurative. And shall we 
be debarred the privilege to judge for ourselves, after 
investigating the context ? Or shall your assertion 
settle, the question, whether particular scriptures have 
a literal or a figurative signification ? Not only is the 
passage you have quoted, garbled, but the connexion 
shows that it is spoken figuratively. For a reason pre- 
viously given, I shall now quote the text which you 
have cited, with its most intimate and illustrative con- 
text. 

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth 
my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath 
everlasting life, and shall not come into condemna- 
tion ; but is passed from death unto life. Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now 
is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of 
God ; and they that hear shall live. For as the Fa- 
ther hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son 
to have life in himself; and hath given him authority 
to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of 
man. Marvel cot at this ; for the hour is coming, in 
the which all that are in the graves shall hear his 
voice, and shall come forth ; they that have done 
good, unto the resurrection of life ; and they that have 
done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." 

Whoever will be at the trouble to examine, may 
now see, that the portion which you have cited, is 
intimately connected with the preceding verses, and 
that the first clause of the SSth, alludes to something 
which had been already stated. Marvel not at this ; 
for' — is the first of the 28th verse. Marvel not at 
what? — Christ had just informed them, that eternal 



112 



CANDID REVIEW. 



life was the consequence of believing in him ; and, by 
his common mode of asseveration, ''Verily, verily,'' 
declared, that " the hour is coming, and now is when 
the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and 
they that hear shall live." That this life from the 
dead^ as Paul expresses it, is but coming to the climax 
in this discourse, is too evident to doubt for a mo- 
ment. If, as is said in verse 24, he that believeth on 
Christ hath everlasting, or eternal life, and is passed 
from death to life, it is obvious that he who is a be- 
liever, was dead, and it was therefore established, 
incontrovertibly, that the dead did hear the voice of 
the Son of God, and they that heard did live, and that 
thus to live, was eternal life. The idea of death, in 
sin, is so often expressed in scripture, that few quota- 
tions are necessary, Paul says, " to be carnally 
minded is death ; but to be spiritually minded is life 
and peace." You hath he quickened [given life] 
who were dead in trespasses and sins," and much 
else to the same purpose. Is it then supposable, that 
the subject has changed in its immediate connexion, 
without the least intimation ? First, those who be- 
lieve, are said to pass from death to life. Next, the 
hour was coming, nay, had already come, in which 
the dead, [morally dead] did hear the voice of Christ, 
and they that heard or received his word, lived. In 
the 28th and 29th verses the climax ascends to its ze- 
nith. The human family is represented, not only as 
dead, but buried, and the hearers are forbidden to 
i^arvel, or wonder at what he had already said, for 
the figure of speech was increased by the idea of 
raising, not merely from death, but from the grave. 
If the dead mentioned above, be understood figura- 
tively, the nature of the death noticed cannot be 
changed by the use of the word grave ; it is no more 
than the figure of speech twice dead," which can 
only signify, sunk to the lowest state of moral or spir« 



CANDID REVIEW. 



US 



itaal death. The vision of Ezekiel, ch. 37, is full to 
the purpose in this place, 

" Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones 
are the whole house of Israel ; behold, they say, Our 
bones are dried, and our hope is lost ; we are cut off 
for our parts. Therefore prophecy and say unto 
them, Thus saith the Lord GOD ; Behold, O my 
people, I will open your graves, and cause you to 
come up out of your graves, and bring you into the 
land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the 
Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, 
and brought you up out of your graves.*" 

To show that the term resurrection, twice used in 
this passage, is not its only nor its primitive import^ I 
shall transcribe a passage from Dr. Campbell, as quo- 
ted by Mr. Balfour, on this passage.— Not a shadow 
of doubt can fix on the knowledge of this great schol- 
ar ; he rests on authority which must be the umpire 
in disputes on the dead languages. ^' The word anas- 
tasis^ or rather the phrase, anastasis ton nekron^ is 
indeed the common term by which the resurrection, 
properly so called, is denominated in the New Testa- 
ment. Yet this is neither the only, nor the primitive 
import of the word anastasis. It denotes simply, be- 
ing raised from inactivity to action, or from obscuri- 
ty to eminence, or a return to such a state, after an 
interruption. The verb anistemi has the like latitude 
of signification, and both words are used in this extent 
by the writers of 'the New Testament, as well as by 
the Seventy. Agreeably, therefore, to the original 
import, arising from a seat is properly termed anasta- 
sis, so is awaking out of sleep, or promotion from an 
inferior condition. The word occurs in this last 
sense, Luke 2 : 34." This, then, ought to be suffi- 
cient authority in the present instance, more especial- 
ly, when the connexion of the passage renders it 
nearly impossible that a literal signification could fee 

10^ 



114 CANDID REVIEW. 



intended. The reader is requested not to pass by 
this subject sUghtly. Its close examination may give 
him much light on a very important subject. He will 
not fail to recollect, that Dr. Campbell, who gives this 
information relative to the term resurrection, was a 
most able writer, and an orthodox professor and di- 
vine. The testimony does not rest on the authority 
of men who are even suspected of doubting the gen- 
eral principles of modern divinity. It is not there- 
fore,, a matter of speculative opinion — a mere subter- 
fuge by which to escape from an otherwise self-evi- 
dent conclusion. This is one of those instances in 
which is evidenced the strong prejudices of early ed- 
ucation. We commonly, and almost universally at- 
tach the idea of a state yet future to the term resur- 
rection, but with how much propriety, let the reader 
judge. In the light of this criticism, every part is 
harmonized. The morally dead rise to moral life. 
Thus one portion compares completely with the other., 
and the whole is seen to refer to transactions in the 
present state of being. Every other view of the sub- 
ject is mere confusion in the sense. A few words on 
the term judgment will follow. 

In the 27th verse, we learn, that God gave to Christ 
authority to execute judgment also, because he is 
the Son of man.'' If judgment were rendered dam- 
nation in tl^is passage, and the term signify as you un- 
derstand it, then the mission of Christ is not " to save 
the world,'' but to damn the world, and the passage 
which declares the reverse must be false. In John 
9 : 39, we read — " For judgment I am come into this 
world," but did the wildest imagination ever conceive 
that we were to understand this in the sense in which 
you understand damnation ? But why not ? is it not 
the same word (krima) so often rendered judgment, 
and damnation ? Krisis is the word used in John 7 : 
•22, 24, 27, 29, 30, but the shade of difference, which 



CANDID REVIEW. 



115 



exists between them in the Greek, is not expressed in 
Enghsh. But having in a previous No. noticed this 
word, I shall now add but a few lines. In John 3 : 
19, it is krisis^ and rendered condemnation, which is 
thus described — And this is the condemnation, that 
light is come into the world, and men loved darkness 
rather than light because their deeds were evil."— 
The way of the transgressor, being hard, those who 
do wrong, eat of the fruit of their doings, and the re- 
ward of their hands is given them. That the same 
word is rendered judgment, condemnation, and dam- 
nation, no scholar will dispute, and that the sound 
conveys very different idea to a common reader, is 
equally plain. Why these words are thus rendered, 
may not be difficult to determine, w4ien we see that 
in the face of the most obvious facts, not only the 
meaning of the Greek is misrepresented, but the let- 
ter and spirit of the translation are both violated, for 
a purpose which you may not wish to hear men- 
tioned. 

But why should the term damnation refer to a fu- 
ture state of being, while eternal life, which is its op- 
posite, is referred to this state of existence ? This 
question requires a reply. To say that this is an as- 
sumption, is idle. If the recipient of everlasting life 
is passed from death to life, as is evident by verse 24, 
and abundance of other testimonies, the present tense 
is too evidently the state in which the life mentioned 
is enjoyed, to admit a doubt. That eternal hfe is the 
knowledge of God, and of Jesus Christ, the sent 
of God, is the testimony of Christ, John 17. When 
this is disproved, I shall admit that the subject rests 
in doubt. Having shown that the life originates from 
a belief in the gospel dispensation, it will be perceived 
that this idea agrees with the catastrophe in Matt. 25. 
Believers entered into rest, while unbelievers suffered 
the damnation of Gehenna. But the 10th chapter of 



116- 



CANDID REVIEW. 



John, settles the final state of unbelievers, thus 
" And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold ; 
them also I must bring, and they shall hear my 
voice ; and there shall be one fold, and one shep- 
herd/' Having already said, I am the good shep- 
herd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine,'^ 
the conclusion is indisputable, that those whom he 
must bring, are those who at a given time do not hear 
his voice. That Aear, is used for attention, under- 
standing, and knowledge, in different and numerous 
passages, is too evident to require a single word in 
explanation. And it is as evidently its meaning in 
this as in any other instance, and is most obviously 
the meaning in the cited texts. 

Having shown briefly, but I trust conclusively, tha 
the text in question has been utterly misapplied in 
your Letter, I may be excused from trespassing far- 
ther on the time of the reader. Sensible as I am, 
that this is but a bird's eye view of the subject, I must 
leave it to the good sense of the reader to determine 
whether your mode of handling this subject, and the 
support which your manner has received from scrip- 
ture,* is entitled to the confidence of a community, 
which possesses the means and the right of examining 
the scriptures, to see whether these things are so. 
Your well wisher, 

CANDIDUS. 

* It is not a little remarkable, that on these two garbled passa- 
ges, Mr. H. relies for incontestible evidence of a future judgment, 
and fina^ separation, in another state of existence, without en- 
deavouring to strengthen them by a shadow of argument, or a text 
of correspondmg scriptjire. If positive assertion, and the raiscita- 
tionof scripture, are his means of offensive warfare, those whc take 
the trouble to think, can dibcover a sufficient reason for this con- 
duct. 



CANDID REVIEW. 



117 



NO. 11. 

To Rev. Joel Haw es^— Hartford. 

Sir — I shall now proceed to remark on some of 
your observations respecting certain passages of scrip- 
ture, which, as you assert, are pressed into the service 
of Universalists. In letter 8th you say ; 

Again it is said, he is the Saviour of all men. 
But here only a part of the text is quoted. He is the 
Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe* 
The meaning is, Christ is offered as the Saviour of all, 
of ail orders and classes of men. Gentiles as well as 
Jews : but he is actually the Saviour of those only 
who believe and obey his gospel.'' 

Universalists are here accused of garbling a portion 
of scripture, the whole of which would much better 
answer their purpose than a part ; and even in your 
attempt at correction, the same passage is misquoted 
and mutilated ! The whole sentence, as it stands in 
1 Tim. 4 : 10, redds thus ; 

For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, 
because we trust in the hving God, who is the Saviour 
of all men, specially of those that beheve.'' 

Taking now the whole text, and fairly examining its 
import, not the least intimation is given, which will 
justify your commentary. If he is the Saviour of all 
men, the special salvation, which is the lot of behev- 
ers, does not in the least mihtate against the salvation 
of all men. How is he, how can he be, the Saviour 
of those who are not saved ? To say that Christ is 
offered, is the most egregious absurdity. The scrip- 
tures know nothing about the offers of salvation, and 
similar expressions ; these are coined by Arminians, to 
avoid the doctrine of Universal Salvation. When 
the prophets and apostles say that ailha^- e sinned, with 
what consummate arrogance must that man be filled. 



118 CANDID REVIEW. 



who should say, the meaning is, that all orders and 
classes of men, Gentiles as well as Jews, was the fair 
import of their language ? You have already stated 
that the salvation of a single soul was not made certain 
by the atonement of Christ ; how then do you assure 
more certainty of salvation to behevers, than to unbe- 
lievers ? When you can make it appear that God is 
the Saviour of men, who are not actually saved by him, 
your assertion will demand more attention. While 
people are more willing to hear opinions respecting 
the scriptures, than to search the reasons of those 
opinions, it may truly be said — they that lead them 
cause them to err, and destroy the way of their paths." 
I shall now examine the following quotatijn, the sub- 
stance of which came under notice in the Inquirer 
more than a year ago, 

" It is said again ; as in Adam all die, even so in 
Christ shall all be made alive. But the whole context 
shows that the Apostle in this passage is speaking of 
the resurrection of the body, and has no reference to 
the future condition, either of the righteous or the 
wicked. His meaning is, that as the first Adam was 
the cause of natural death, so Christ the second Adam, 
is the author of the resurrection.'' 

You here assert, that making alive in Christ, merely 
alludes to the resurrection of the bgdy. It is your 
only mode of elusion, and we shall soon see how much 
aid you are likely to derive from it. The words of 
Christ are " ye do therefore err, not knowing the scrip- 
tures, nor the. power of God ; for in the resurrection, 
they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are 
as the angels of Goji in Heaven.'' Exert all your in- 
genuity on the passage, and the labour must be futile. 

It is worse than idle to resort to the common sophis- 
try used in similar cases. The import of the words is 
definite— it hdiS not the most distant allusion to any 
portion of men, but, to the subjects of the resurrec- 
tion. Disprove this, and I have done." 



CANDID REVIEW. II9 



The first inquiry is, how do men die in Adam? 
It is necessary to settle this point, before we can settle 
the latter clause— ere/i so in Christ, shall all be made 
alive." All men are not liable to a natural death"- 
Eaoch and Elijah were translated, and did not see 
death, if we may credit the scriptures. An apostle 
also tells us in this same chapter (1 Cor. 15.) that we 
shall not all sleep ; beyond controversy, alluding to a 
natural death, or the dissolution of the body. All do 
not therefore, die temporally, in Adam, nor have all 
died in him, in this sense of the words.'' Therefore, 
a natural death is not the import of the passage. But 
let us look at the context. 

" For since by man came death, by man came also 
the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, 
even so in Christ shall all be made alive." 

It hardly seems possible, that one can be found, who 
will attempt to prove by the scriptures, that a natural 
death was caused by the lapse of Adam. I know it is 
said— and I know the force of the assertion depends 
on human authority— prx)of cannot be produced, nor 
any thing bordering on proof; and analogy is com- 
pletely against it. But to show the harmony of the 
scriptures in the use of the phrase in Christy a few 
examples will be quoted. To the faithful in Christ 
Eph. 1: 1,3. Created in Christ Jesus unto good 
works. Eph. 2:10. For ye are all the children of 
God by faith in Christ Jesus. — For ye are all one in 
Christ Jesus. — Gal. 3 : 2G, 28. If any man be in 
Christ, he is a new creature. 2 Cor. 5 : 17. That 
will live godly in Christ Jesus. 2 Tim. 3 : 12. And 
in the chapter whence the text is taken, we read, verse 
18, of those who had fallen asleep in Christ, evidently 
lalluding to beUevers. But testimonies are abundant 
to show, that to be made alive in Christ, is to eujoy 
the blessings of the new covenant. But, to settle still 
more conclusively the general scope of the apostle's 



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argument, and to show that to be made alive in Christy 
is a spiritual renovation, let us quote the language in 
this chapter, and elsewhere. 

And so it is written, The first man Adam was 
made a living soul ; the last Adam was made a quick- 
ening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spir- 
itual, but that which is natural ; and afterward that 
which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, 
earthy ; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As 
is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy ; and 
as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heaven- 
ly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, 
we shall also bear the ima^e of the heavenly.'' 

After reading the above, I can hardly conceive liow 
any man, having but a moderate comprehension of the 
language, will mistake the force of the apostle's paral* 
lei between Adam and Christ. The first Adam, was 
a living soul, an animal ; the last Adam is a quicken- 
ing, life-giving spirit. The natural or first man, Adam^ 
was of the earth, earthy, or earthly ; the second Ad- 
am, was from heaven. .^nd as we have borne the 
image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image 
of the HEAVENLY.*"* Tliis is in perfect unison with 
other declarations in this chapter, that the body which 
is sown in corruption, in dishonour, in weakness, and 
an animal, or natural body — shall be raised incorrup- 
tible, in glory, in power, and spiritual. Incorruption 
and glory are co-extensive with corruption and dis- 
honour. And again says the apostle, in the closing 
portion of the chapter ; 

" For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and 
this mortal must put on immmortality. So when thiB 

The comparison here is not between the body which is put 
Into the grave, and that which is to be raised^but between the 
state of man in the present fraii and mortal lite, and that in which 
be will be placed after his resurrection from the grave; when 
he will be made glorious, happy, and imraortal.-^Abfe to Imf. 
Ver. on verse 42. 



CANDID REVIEW. 121 



corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this 
mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be 
brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is 
swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting ? 
O grave, where is thy victory ? The sting of death is 
sin ; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks 
be to God, which giveth us the victory, through our 
Lord Jesus Christ.'' ^ 

This corruptible must put on incorruption— mortal 
MUST put on immortality. Those who have borne the 
image of the earthly, shall also bear the image of 
the heavenly man, the second Adam. Can words be 
more explicit — more universal ? At the time, to which 
the apostle here alludes, when mortal shall have put 
on immortality, " shall be brought to pass the saying 
that is written : [Isa. 25 :] Death is swallowed up 
in victory." To what death does Paul allude ? Not 
to a natural death, most surely, for the import of his 
language, in view of this consummation, is utterly ir- 
reconcileable with such a conclusion— O death ! 
where is thy sting? O grave, [hades, hell] where is 
thy victory He concludes this enthusiastic strain, 
by thanking God for the victory over the last enemy, 
death, through Jesus Christ. Is it proktble, that a 
man of his philanthropy, could utter such a strain of 
praise and thanksgiving, for a catastrophe, which 
should consign to remediless ruin a vast portion of his 
brethren according to the flesh ? Impossible ! utterly 
impossible. 

But the tenor of this chapter brings to mind other 
declarations of the same import. See Rom. 8 : 1,2. 

There is therefore now no condemnation to them 
which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, 
but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life 
in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin 
and death.'' 



11 



122 



CANDID REVIEW. 



Have you a wish to pervert this testimony ? Or can 
you maintain that condemnation awaits any who are 
in Christ ? See also 1 Cor. 1 : 30. " But of him are 
ye in Christ Jesus, &c. with abundance of other tes- 
timonies to the same purpose. 

I think I have shown conclusively, that none who 
are in Christ, according to the scripture language, are 
in a state o^^ condemnation ; and it appears equally 
obvious, that the passage in question alludes to a 
moral or spiritual resurrection to newness of life. If 
the proof by which I have attempted to sustain it be 
conclusive, it can need no fine spun arguments in its 
defence* If, however, contrary to analogy, and every 
other passage of scripture in which the phrase m Christ 
is used, you still persist in referring the text to a lite- 
ral resurrection of the body, and that merely, I meet 
you on your own ground, and challenge you to show 
how the subjects of the resurrection, who " are as the 
angels of God in heaven," are also the subjects of a 
sentence too horrid to believe fully and constantly, 
without driving reason from her seat, and ending in 
the blackness of despair. You are challenged to show 
that temporal death was denounced to man in conse- 
quence of transgression. 

A paragraph in your 8th letter, dwelling on the res- 
titution of all things, closes as follows : 

^' The passage does not say a word respecting the 
salvation of all, nor any of mankind. It only asserts 
the completion of all the predictions contained in the 
ancient prophecies. But whether the restoration of 
all men to divine favour is one of those predictions^ 
remains to be proved.'' 

It is perfectly futile to remark that the passage from 
Acts says nothing of the salvation of all. We have 
just seen, that your word is sufficient to neutralize ten 
thousand texts in which the salvation of all is clearly 
expressed^ by the same sophistry which eludes the 



CANDID REVIEW. 



123 



force of one. By telling your readers, (what you are 
challenged to prove) that Universalists misquote such 
passages, and then saying they only mean, ^"C. those 
who have not learned better, may believe you^ and the 
most explicit language of the scriptures be no more 
than sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.'' But you 
admit that the declaration of Peter " asserts the com- 
pletion of all the predictions contained in the ancient 
prophecies," If, then, it can be shown that the an- 
cient prophecies refer to a time when all the intelhgent 
creation of God shall be reclaimed from sin, and enjoy 
a state of holiness and happiness, your elusion will 
come to nothing. You ought to know that Universal- 
ists do not speak of a restoration to divine favour — we 
insist upon the language of scripture, which declares, 
that God commendeth his love to sinners, and that his 
love is great towards rebels, and that he is rich in 
mercy to those who are dead in sins. Let us now turn 
to the ancient prophecies, appealing to the New-Tes« 
tament writers for their illustration. 

In Gen. 12:2, 3, and other places, God promises 
to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that in their seed, all 
the nations, famihes, and kindred of the earth shall 
be blessed. As the letter of these texts is matter of 
notoriety, we shall endeavour to gather their import 
from the writers of the New Testament. Paul in his 
epistle to the Galatians, 3:8, gives us the following^ 
information respecting them. 

^' And the scripture, foreseeing that God would jus- 
tify the heathen through faith, preached before the 
gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations 
be blessed." 

This, then is the gospel. To avoid the most obvi- 
ous conclusion of this definition, we are told, that the 
blessing here described is temporal. Not a particle 
of proof is produced, nor attempted ; and for the 
plainest reason, it cannot he found. Not a solitary 



124 



CANDID REVIEW. 



testimony of scripture can be produced, which goes 
to sustain the position, that the early and the latter 
rain, sunshine and harvest, with the vicissitudes of the 
seasons, are the blessing to which either of these passa- 
^es alludes. To what then do they allude ? See Acts 
S : 25, 26. 

Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the 
covenant which God made with our fathers, saying 
unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds 
of the earth be blessed. Unto you first, God, having 
raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turn- 
ing away every one of you from his iniquities.*" 

Here then we learn who is that seed, of whom it is 
said, that in him all the families of the earth shall be 
blessed ; and we learn also the nature of the blessing 
' — purification from sin. This is in agreement with 
the declaration of the Angel " he shall save his peo- 
ple from their sins.'' Christ then is the seed to whom 
the promise was made, and the blessing is co-extensive 
vnth the family of man. 

The Psalms are full of the doctrine, of which Ps, 
22 : 27, is a passage well suited to the present occasion. 

All the ends of the world shall remember, and 
turn unto the LORD ; and all the kindreds of the 
nations shall worship before thee.*" 

In connexion with this see Isa. 35 : 10. 
And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and 
come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their 
heads ; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow 
and sighing shall flee away.'' 

Who are the ransomed of the Lord ? — Christ gave 
himself a ransom for all — he tasted death for every 
man, and the prophet Isaiah says, he shall see of the 
travail of his soul and be satisfied. 

Let us now turn to Isa. 25 : 6, 7, 8. 

" And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make 
unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on 



CANDID REVIEW. 



125 



the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the 
lees well refined. "And he will destroy in this moun- 
tain the face of the covering cast over all people, and 
the vail ihat is spread over all nations ; He will swal- 
low up death to victory ; and the Lord God will wipe 
away tears from off all faces ; and the rebuke of his 
people shall he take away from ofF all the earth, for 
the Lord hath spoken it. 

Do you inquire what is the covering, this veil ? See 
:2Cor. 3 : 14, 15, 16. 

But their minds were blinded ; for until this day 
remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading 
of the Old Testament ; which vail is done away in 
Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, 
the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it 
shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away/' 

We now see that this covering was the vail of ig- 
norance, the darkness of the Mosaic economy — the 
shadow of good things, and we see that vail is done 
away in Christ. Turning to the Lord destroys this 
vail, and as the face of the covering is to be destroyed, 
tears wiped from all faces, and the rebuke taken away 
from off all the earth, the emancipation of the ran- 
somed millions will be complete. Death will then be 
swallowed up in victory. 

But perhaps we can learn from scripture something 
relative to the mountain, in which this covering is to 
be destroyed, and this feast of fat things is to be prer 
pared. Isa. 2 : 2, speaks of the mountain in these 
terms ; 

" And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the 
mountain of the LORD'S house shall be estabhshed 
in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted 
above the hills ; and all nations shall flow unto it.'' 

Daniel speaking of this mountain ch. 2: 34, 35^ 
says; 



11* 



126 



CANDID REVIEW. 



" Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without 
hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were 
of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then 
was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the 
gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the 
chaff of the summer threshing-floors ; and the wind 
carried them away, that no place was found for them ; 
and the stone that smote the image became a great 
mountain, and filled the whole earth.''' 

And in 5 : 44, explains as follows ; 

" And in the days of these kings shall the God of 
heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be de- 
atroj ed ; and the kingdom shall not be left to other 
people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all 
these kingdonns, and it shall stand for ever.'' 

This testimony agrees with that of Isaiah, who, 
speaking of Christ, says — Of the increase of his 
government and peace there shall be no end." 

Jacob, prophetically describing the seed, in whona 
all the families of the earth are to be blessed, Gen. 49: 
10, thus speaks : 

" The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a 
lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come ; 
and unto him shall the gathering of the people 6e/' 

I think no dispute will arise respecting Shiloh, the 
sent ; Christ is evidently intended. That this may 
appear more fully as the spirit of the prediction, let 
us appeal to Eph. 1 : 9, 10. 

Having made known unto us the mystery of his 
will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath 
purposed in himself ; that in the dispensation of the 
fulness of times, he might gather together in one all 
things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which 
are on earth, even in him 

It is thus the kingdoms of this world shall become 
the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and it is 
thus that as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all 
be made alive^ 



CANDID REVIEW. 



127 



Having looked at a few of the ancient prophecies, 
and learning that they import the fuhiess of blessed- 
ness for the sum total of the human race, I have to 
request, that you will either show the misapplication 
of these citations, or grant, manfully and openiy, that 
you are refuted by scripture testimony, on your own 
premises, aad that the restoration of all men to holi- 
ness and happiness, no longer " remains to be proved." 
Your well wisher, 

CANDIDUS. 

NO. 12. 

To Rev. Joel Hawes^ — Hartford. 

Sir, — I have already endeavoured to aggroup a few 
©f those passages found in the ancient prophecies^ 
relative to the benevolent designs of our heavenly fa- 
ther, towards his erring otTspring. But I have a rea- 
son for quoting one more, which will be seen in the 
sequel. The citation to which I allude, may be found 
in the close of Isa. 45. 

" Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of 
the earth ; for I am God, and there is none else. I 
have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my 
mouth in righteousness, and shall not return. That 
unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall 
swear. Surely shall one say. In the LORD have I 
righteousness and strength ; even to him shall men 
come ; and all that are incensed against him shall be 
ashamed. In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel 
be justified, and shall glory.'' 

Before appealing to the New Testament for an ex- 
plication of this decisive passage, a few passing re- 
marks may be proper. The evangelical prophet here 



128 



CANDID REVIEW. 



calls upon all the ends of the earth, to look and be 
saved. The coincidence between this call, and the 
prediction of David, is very striking. " All the ends 
of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord." 
Thus, agreeably to the call of one prophet, another 
answers that the call shall be effectual. The language 
is not that of an offer, it is a command, and that com- 
mand shall be obeyed. Bat the connexion also shows 
that the oath of God is pledged for the obedience of 
al! to w^hom the call is made. The Almighty pledges 
his existence that every knee shall bow, and every 
tongue shall swear, In the Lord have I righteous- 
ness and strength." Noi the least intimation is here 
given of a separation. All shall return from their 
backslidings, and shall swear fealty to the King of 
Heaven. This appears to be quoted by Paul in his 
epistle to the Philippians, 2 : 8, 9, 10, 11. 

" And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled 
himself, and became obedient unto death, even the 
death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly 
exalted him, and given him a name which is above 
every name ; That at [m] the name of Jesus every 
knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in 
earth, and things under the earth ; And that every 
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to 
the glory of God the Father." 

I shall now quote the acknowledgement of Profes- 
sor Stuart, of the Andover Institution, on the mean- 
ing of this passage. Such a concession, from such a 
man, is too valuable to be omitted. When opponents 
concede so much, though intended to serve a differ- 
ent purpose, a fair use of their reasoning is the strong- 
est mod6 of maintaining the doctrine, in defence of 
which their conclusions are so absolute. 

" Things in heaven, earth, and under the earth, is 
a common periphrasis of the Hebrew and New Tes- 
tament writers, for the universe ; (ta pan, or ta panta.) 



CANDID REVIEW. 



129 



What can b€ meant by things in heaven, i. e. beings 
in heaven bowing the knee to Jesus, if spiritual wor- 
ship be not meant ? What other worship can heaven 
render? And if the worship of Christ in heaven be 
spiritual; should not that of others, who ought to be 
in temper united with them be spiritual also ? Rev. 
5: 8, 14. And when he had taken the book, the 
four beasts and four and twenty eiders fell down be- 
fore the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and 
golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of 
saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art 
worthy to take the book, and to open the seals there- 
of ; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God 
by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and 
people, and nation ; and hast made us unto our God 
kings and priests ; and we shall reign on the earth. 
And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels 
round about the throne, and the beasts and the elders i 
and the number of them was ten thousand times ten 
thousand, and thousands of thousands ; saying wdth a 
loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to re- 
ceive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength^ 
and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every 
creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and un- 
der the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that 
are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and 
glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the 
throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And 
the four beasts said, Amen, and the four and tw^enty 
elders fell dow^n and worshipped him that liveth for 
ever and ever.'' If this be not spiritual worship, — > 
and if Christ be not the object of it here, I am unable 
to produce a case, where w^orship can be called spirit- 
ual and divine.'' 

I have produced this testimony from Professor Stu- 
art, to show hovi much the truth often compels men 
to avow, when not contending against theMoctrine in 



130 CANDID REVIEW. 



debate. And I shall also Consider it a complete re- 
futation of the remarks you have made in a subsequent 
paragraph, on this same passage. But it may also be 
well to obviate in this place a cavil, (for argument it 
certainly is not) which is sometimes opposed to the 
import of this passage. It h said, that the miseries of 
the damned in bell, tend equally as much to the de- 
clarative glory of God, as the felicity of the blessed in 
heaven. In conversation it might be suflicient to ask 
for proof of this unwarranted assumption. In the 
present instance, the assumption will be disproved by 
scripture and reason. An apostle declares that men 
come short of the glory of God by sinning. For all 
have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.""— 
This scripture must be sufficient. We ask now, by 
way of reasoning, if both holiness and sin — happiness 
and misery, can, in the nature of things, equally glo» 
rify God ? If so, why did the apostles and prophets 
offer motives for the promotion of the one, and dissua- 
sives from the other ? and why was Christ to save his 
people from their sins, when God^s glory would be 
equally promoted by sin as by holiness ? 

But an apostle has informed us, that no man can 
call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Spirit ? This single 
testimony has, and ought to have more weight than 
ten thousand contrary assumptions. Having already 
occupied more room than I intended on this subject, 
I now proceed to your remarks on the 5th chapter of 
Romans. 

Again it is said, that as by the offence of one, 
judgment came upon all men to condemnation ; even 
so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon 
all men unto justification of life. Upon this passage 
I remark — 1. The whole chapter in which it is found 
is confessedly intricate, and hard to be understood ;~ 
and you will not be rash enough to risk your eternal 
destiny on the correctness of a doubtful interpreta- 



CANDID REVIEW. 



131 



tion. 2. We must suppose Paul is always consistent 
with himself ; but if we allow this verse to mean Uni- 
versa! salvation, it contradicts a multitude of other 
passages in his writings. 3. There is no proof, or 
indication that he is on the subject of the saved ; for 
the abounding grace refers to the number of sins for- 
given — not of sinners saved — unless more are saved 
in Christ than were lost in Adam. I have not room 
to analyze the passage, but will only give you the 
principle which will direct you in interpreting it con- 
sistently with the context, the argument, the other 
writings of Paul, and the general tenor of the scrip- 
tures. The context clearly shows that the meaning 
of the Apostle is, that the provision of mercy through 
Christ is for Gentiles as well as for Jews. In other 
words, justification of life is a gift offered to all men 
without distinction of nation or character/' 

I notice, first, the introduction to this selection 
from Paul's writings. Again, it is said — &ic» If this 
be not an evident attempt to put the apostle's argu- 
ment in the back ground, I labour under a most egre- 
gious error. You then remark that the whole chap- 
ter in which this is found (without naming it) is coii- 
fessedly intricate ! In reference to this observation, 
I will cite a note on the 1 9th verse, found in Kneeland's 
Version. 

"Though the construction of this paragraph is in- 
tricate and obscure, nothing can be more obvious than 
this, that it is the apostle's intention to represent all 
mankind, without exception, as deriving greater bene- 
fit from the mission of Christ, than they suffered in- 
jury from the fall of Adam. The universality of the 
apostle's expressions is very remarkable. The same 
''many,'' who were made sinners through the disobe- 
dience of the one, are made righteous through the 
obedience of the other. If all men are condemned 
tkrough the offence of one, the same all are justified 



CANDID REVIEW. 



through the righteousness of the other. These uni- 
versal terms, so frequently repeated, and so variously 
diversified, cannot be reconciled to the limitation of 
the blessings of the gospel to the elect alone, or to a 
part only of the human race. Compare 1 Cor. 15: 
22, 23. See Chauncey on Universal Salvation* Prop. 
4 : p. 22, etc.^' Im. Ver. note. 

Your second remark, touching the inconsistency of 
Paul's writings with Universal Salvation, is not con- 
firmed by a single example, and the whole paragraph 
exhibits incontestible evidence, that you are reduced 
to the humiliating necessity of appealing to mystery, 
assumption, and sophistry, for want of argument or 
fact 

In reply to your third remark, I observe, that if 
Paul be not here on the subject of the saved, you can- 
not furnish evidence that he has written on the sub- 
ject in a single instance. But you stand corrected by 
your own words, in the first period. You allow that 
" the abounding grace refers to the number of sins 
forgiven, not of sinners saved This shows, either 
that your former definition of salvation is incorrect, 
or that the forgiveness of sinners is their salvation. — 
Can so much malversation be consistent with a desire 
for the knowledge of truth! — The sophistry which 
you half impute to Universalists, shall be examined^ 
After assuming the position, that the apostle is not on 
the subject of the saved, jou appear to doubt the 
truth of your own position, by immediately adding 
that which refutes the statement already made. If 
the forgiveness of sin, and justification to life, do not 
mclude the subject of salvation, be pleased no longer 
to palter in this double sense, but at once let us know 
what you mean by salvation. No Uhiversalist ever 
did, or ever will contend, that the number of sinners 
saved in Christ, is greater than the whole of God's 
intelligent creation. All for which they plead by this 



CANDID REVIEW, 133 



passage, Is the abounding of grace over sin. But as 
the language of the apostle conveys my ideas on this 
subject in better phraseology than I should probably 
employ, you will permit him to speak for me, in this 
same chapter ; 

" But God commendeth his love towards i/s, in that, 
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much 
more then, being now justified by his blood, we 
shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when 
we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the 
death of his Son ; much more, being reconciled, we 
shall be saved by his life/' 

After reading the above, will you say deliberately, 
that " there is no proof or indication that he is on the 
subject of the saved?'' See also verses 15, 16, 17, 
immediately preceding the text. 

" But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. — ^ 
For if, through the offence of one, many be dead, 
much MORE, the grace of God, and the gift by grace, 
which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded 
unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so 
is the gift ; for the judgment was by one to condem- 
nation ; but the free gift is of many offences unto 
justification. For if by one man's offence, death 
reigned by one ; much more, they which receive 
abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, 
«hall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." 

But to avoid any cavil on the question who, or how 
many they are, which receive this abundance of grace, 
the succeeding verse settles the question, by including 
all men in the condemnation, and all men in the jus- 
tification. 

To show that the scope of the apostle's argument 
goes to prove the supremacy of the grace of God, 
over and above the loss by transgression, the remain- 
der of the chapter, including that which you have but 
partly quoted, will now be given entire. Let every 

12 



134 CANDID REVIEW. 



reader judge for himself, who has endeavoured to 
darken counsel by words without knowledge ? 

Therefore, as by the offence of one, judgment 
came upon all men to condemnation ; even so by the 
righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men 
unto justification of life. For as by one man's diso- 
bedience many were made sinners, so by the obedi- 
ence of one shall many be made righteous. Moreo- 
ver, the law entered that the offence might abound. 
But where sin abounded, grace did much more 
abound ; that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so^ 
might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal 
life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.'' 

Here, Sir, is the very phrase which you contend is 
used in contrast to the endless misery of the wicked, 
[Mat. 25 : 46.] and yet you aver that in this very con- 
nexion not even an indication is given, that Paul is on 
the subject of the saved ! Does truth need the aid 
of such serpentine conduct ? 

Like you. Sir, 1 have not room, nor yet time, to 
analyze the passage fully, as it requires ; but he 
must indeed be a dreamer, who does not see that even 
in one paragraph, you have exhibited a diploma for 
error and inconsistency. If as you say in close, 
''justification of life is a gift offered to all men without 
distinction of nation or character,'' the apostle, and 
all other writers in the Bible, wanted terms to express 
it. I repeat the assertion, that the offer of salvation 
is not found in the Bible. — ^The same apostle Rom, 
6 : 23, says, " For the wages of sin is death ; but the 
gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our 
Lord/' A GIFT, is neither an offer^ nor a purchase^ 

I shall close this No. by turning your attention to 
the burden of a gospel preacher, as delineated by 
Paul, in Rom. 10 : 14, 15, of which it is my earnest 
desire that you should profit. Judge for yourself, if 



CANDID REVIEW. 



13^ 



you are entitled to the meed — well done^ in view of 
this testimony. 

How then shall they call on him in whom they 
have not believed? and how shall they believe in 
him, of whom they have not heard ? and how shall 
they hear without a preacher? And how shall they 
preach, except they be sent, as it is written ? How 
beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel 
of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things ! 
Yours in the Gospel, 

CANDIDUS. 

NO 13. 

To Rev. Joel Hawes^ — Hartford, 

Sir — In perusing your ^' Reasons for not embracing 
the doctrine of Universal Salvation,'' I pause to exam- 
ine the following paragraph, found in the second 
Letter ; 

2. That I fear to embrace that doctrine because 
it would oblige me to regard Christ and hijs Apostles 
as incompetent or dishonest teachers of rehgion ; and 
the Bible itself as fitted and designed to lead men into 
error.'' 

Permit me to inform you, Sir, that your apprehen- 
sions, in this instance, are entirely groundless, Those 
who credit the doctrine you attempt to refute, " regard 
Christ and his apostles as competent and honest teach- 
ers of religion; and the Bible itself as fitted and 
designed to lead men into truth.'' They also believe 
that no other system exhibits the perfections of Godj 
or the consistency of the scriptures. 

You appear to have bound yourself, in this citation^ 
utterly to reject the scriptures, should they be shown 



136 



CANDID REyiEW. 



to countenance the doctrine of Universal Salvation. 
Whether they do, or not, shall now be tested, by your 
own rule. In Letter 5th you say, 

A single plain and direct declaration of the word 
of God is as decisive on the question before us as a 
thousand,'' The preceding Number contains more 
than sufficient for the present purpose, but to show 
that we are not straitened for proof on this point, more 
will now be adduced. See Psalm 36. 

" All nations whom thou hast made shall come and 
worship before thee, O LORD ; and shall glorify thy 
name." The Psalmist here describes the worship- 
pers of God as co-extensive with the human race. 
Whatever limitation is implied in respect to the wor- 
shippers, is also implied in the creation of God. T© 
show that God's grace is limited, will be sufficient 
proof that his power is limited also. If to worship, 
and in that worship to glorify the name of God, do not 
imply a state of blessedness, the converse side of the 
proposition is left to you to sustain. This, Sir, is one 

plain and direct'' passage. 

Another testimony from the same book is offered for 
your consideration. Ps. 146: 9. ''The LORD 
good to all ; and his tender mercies are over all 
his works.'' Without spending time to nullify the 
senseless cavils on the word all\ I shall now merely 
show the folly and weakness of the common attempt 
to evade the force of this testimony. It has been said, 
that the tender mercies in the text, designate the com- 
mon and manifold bounties of a temporal nature, of 
which we are the constant recipients. That this is 
not the meaning of the phrase, is gathered from the 
following scripture, found in the same book ; 

" Have mercy upon me,0 God, according to thy 
loving kindness ; according unto the multitude of thy 
tender mercies blot out my transgressions. O remem- 
ber not against us former iniquities ; let thy tender 



CANDID REVIEW. 137 



mercies speedily prevent us ; for we are brought very 
low. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all 
his benefits ; who forgiveth all thine iniquities ; who 
healeth all thy diseases ; who redeemeth thy life from 
destruction ; who crowneth thee with loving-kindness 
and tender mercies." 

These passages appear to me sufficiently luminous 
to set the question at rest ; but a passage will be pro- 
duced from the New Testament, which ought to settle 
the point beyond controversy. In the first chapter of 
Luke, the father of John the Baptist, thus speaks ; 
" And thou, child shalt be called The Prophet of the 
Highest ; for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord 
to prepare his ways ; to give the knowledge of salva- 
tion unto his people, by the remission of their sins, 
through the tender mercy of our God ; whereby the 
day-spring from on high hath visited us, to give light 
to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, 
to guide our feet into the way of peace." 

These texts serve to exhibit the sense in which the 
term tender mercies was used by the inspired penmen. 
Should you furnish a better rule, to determine the 
sense in which words and phrases are used in the Bi- 
ble, than the comparison of scripture with scripture, 
the use of this method ought in future to be consider- 
ed as obsolete. But until that better rule be discov- 
ered, I shall argue from the best rule yet discovered, 
that the text alludes to spiritual blessings. That the 
quotations, already made, show the text, Ps. 145, to 
signify the remission of sins through the tender mercy 
of our God, is too clear to controvert ; and if this be 
not salvation^ even on your own hypothesis, you are 
left to give your own definition in words better suited 
to the subject. On the first text I argue, that the lan- 
guage is without hmitation. If all nations whom Godi 
has made are to worship before him, and if in this, 
worship they shall glorify the name of their Maker.: 



138 



CANDID REVIEW. 



even orthodoxy run mad must be unable, by the most 
sublimated sophistry, to separate the Universality of 
spiritual worship, from the universality of the creation. 
On the second text, the same argument may be re- 
peated. But I proceed to further testimonies. 

The author of the Apocalypse, after stating the 
number of the sealed to be one hundred and forty- 
four thousand, says ; After this I beheld, and lo, a 
great multitude, which no man could number, of all 
nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood 
before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with 
white robes, and palms in their hands ; and cried with 
a loud voice, saying. Salvation to our God which sit- 
teth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all 
the angels stood round about the throne, and about the 
alders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne 
on their faces, and worshipped God, saying. Amen ; 
Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thankgiving, and 
honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for 
ever and ever. Amen.'' 

In the 3d verse of this chapter, (the 7th) we leara 
that those who were sealed, are "the servants of our 
God.'' But the sealed, the chosen, are but the first 
ripe fruits, the earnest of a plenteous harvest. After 
these, came the innumerable multitudes, thd all na- 
tions, and families, and kindreds, and tongues, and 
people ; yea, the every creature in heaven and earth, 
and all which can be comprehended by the term uni- 
verse, which are all included " in the fulness of the 
blessing of the gospel of Christ." Rev. 21: 3, 4, 5. 

" And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, 
Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he 
will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and 
God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; 
and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor 
^^^yii^g? neither ghaU there be any more pain 5 for the 



CANDID REVIEW. 



139 



former things are passed away. And he that sat upon 
the throne said. Behold, I make all things new. And 
he said unto me, Write ; for these words are true and 
faithful.'' 

On this I shall merely remark, that if " there shall 
he no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, nor 
pain^ endless suffering is not revealed in the scriptures, 
it is a mere figment of the imagination, an ignis fatuus 

which leads to bewilder,'' and like that in the natural 
world, ever eludes the grasp. 

1 have thus, without attempting to give the strength 
of our testimonies, produced no less than four passages 
in proof of the doctrine, which, being found in the 
Bible, will oblige you to doubt the competency of 
Christ and his apostles, as teachers of rehgion. You 
may soon be satisfied, that the testimonies in favour of 
Universal Salvation are as direct, and more numerous, 
than those in favour of Universal Creation. If you 
hesitate in giving credit to the one, you will be under 
the necessity of doubting the other, for I hold myself 
bound to prove by scripture, that God is not the sole 
author of Creation, the moment you adduce proof 
that he is not the Saviour of his creation, of all his 
creatures. 

I shall now examine a charge brought by you against 
Universalists in the following sentence of your ninth 
Letter ; With a view to disprove the doctrine of 
future punishment, Universalists are very fond of ap- 
pealing to the sympathies of our nature, especially to 
parental feelings." 

It is needless to deny this charge ; we plead guilty, 
and shall quote scripture and orthodoxy in justification. 

Isaiah represents the unbelieving Jews as saying, 
The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath for- 
gotten me," But what is the answer ! Does it not 
furnish proof that the prophet was also guilty of ap- 
pealing to the sympathies of our nature, especially to 
parental feelings ?" 



140 CANDID REVIEW. 



" Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she 
should not have compassion on the son of her womb ? 
yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Be- 
hold, 1 have graven thee upon the palms of my hands ; 
thy walls are continually before me.'' 

After the prophet Hosea has said, Ephraim ^5 join- 
ed to his idols ; let him alone and notwithstanding 
the dreadful doctrine drawn from the text by the or- 
thodox, the sympathies of the human heart are suffi- 
ciently warranted by the subsequent language of the 
same prophet. Is Ephraim my dear Son ? Is he a 
pleasant child ? For since I spake against him, I do 
earnestly remember him still." And again — Ephraim 
shall say^ What have I to do any more with idols ? I 
have heard him, and observed him, I am like a green 
fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.'' 

But, not to multiply quotations, let ks inquire wheth- 
er sympathy dwelt in the breast -of Christ and his 
apostles. Christ, in speaking of the stiff-necked and 
rebellious Jews, says, How often would I have gath- 
ered thy children," &c. O that thou hadst known, 
even thou in this thy day,'' &;c. But Paul declares in 
one word, that the goodness of God leadeth to repen- 
tance. Is not an appeal to the goodness of God, and 
to the mercies of God, an appeal to the sympathies of 
our nature ? But orthodox testimonies are not want- 
ing. The following is from the Evangelist ; 

''To her in the form of pity, sorrow owes many 
kind alleviations, and virtue ascribes many of her tri- 
umphs. To thee, angel of consolation, may the 
wretched appeal for peace, and hope, and comfort. 
To thee, the social circle owes its charms, and friend- 
ship her strong and tender influence. Woe to him 
who heeds not thy persuasions ; he hath already 
leagued with hell, and hath covenanted with the chil- 
dren of darkness*" 



CANDID REVIEW. 



>41 



After reading the above quotations, you are left to 
flirnish an apology for the gross attack that is made in 
the citation from your Letters, on the sympathy of 
€)ur natures. But this is not all, you are called upon 
to give a reason for those astonishing exertions made 
by the abettors of your system, for the salvation of 
the heathen. Are you in earnest for their good, or 
do these systematic operations proceed from a spirit 
not recognized in the scriptures ? 

I shall close the present Number by examining a 
Hopkinsian sentiment admitted into your Letters. If 
the admission of its truth lead you into a labyrinth of 
contradictions, the fault is not mine. 

" Now it is admitted on all hands, that God is a 
being of infinite goodness. His natural and moral 
perfections render it certain that he will govern the 
universe in such a manner as will, on the whole, se- 
cure the greatest possible sum of happiness. But 
what does this prove ? That no evil natural or moral, 
can exist under the government of God, — that all the 
subjects of his empire must be holy and happy 

To this I reply ; if the premises be correct, the 
conclusion is certain, for Universal holiness and hap- 
piness must be the result. All the ingenuity of Sam- 
uel Hopkins, aided by all his followers, has not been 
able to extricate the sentiment from the palpable 
absurdity of connecting it with the tenet of endless 
misery. If the greatest possible sum of happiness be 
consistent with a great sum of misery, then is either 
the goodness or power of God deficient. Is God de- 
pendent, or independent ? If the doctrine of fatahsm 
prevent him from the full exercise of infinite benevo- 
lence, the being whom we worship as God is a mere 
idol. If he WILL the salvation of all, and may yet be 
disappointed, by what surety do we know he may not 
be disappointed in the salvation of a single soul ? — 
But you seem to argue^ that as evil, natural and moral, 



142 CANDID REVIEW. 



do exist under the government of God, that therefore, 
the hoHness and happiness of all men does not necessa* 
rily follow from the perfection of God. As 1 purpose 
^to close this Review in the next Number, by calling 
on you for the redemption of a pledge publicly given, 
the subject will then receive a more careful examina- 
tion. At present, you are merely notilied, that a ful- 
filment of your promise will be expected. 

Yours, 

CANDIDUS. 

««^©@©<*— 
HO. 14. 

To Rev, Joel Hawes^ — Hartford. 

Sir — The present number will embrace a call for 
the redemption of a pledge contained in the following 
citation from your 9th Letter ; 

Let Universalists tell how the present sin and 
sufferings of men, are consistent with the benevolence 
of God, and I pledge jnyself to tell how eternal mise- 
ry in the future world is consistent with the same be- 
nevolence. There is the same difficulty in the one 
case as in the other. All that the goodness of God 
demands is, that he govern, in such a manner, as will 
secure the greatest amount of good in the universe- 
That great temporal sufferings are consistent with 
this, is proved by facts and who but God is compe- 
tent to decide that eternal sufferings are not ?" 

In examining this paragraph, I shall take advantage 
of the two concessions which it contains, and endeav- 
our to strengthen them by the application of scrip- 
ture and argument. That God will govern for the 
greatest amount of good to the universe, is all for 
which Universalists contend. But we also maintain^ 



CANDID REVIEW; 143 



that the supreme good of the whole, must include the 
l^est good of all those individuah of which the uni- 
verse is composed. The goodness of God leads to re- 
pentance. To repent is to return : and to return, in- 
cludes a reformation of life. But All the ends of 
the world shall remember and turn to the Lord and 
All nations whom thou hast made shall come and 
worship before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify thy 
name/' It is thus that in the moral government of 
God, his goodness will draw us to the soucre, the 
fountain of unexhausted, inexhaustible Love, and that 
all shall be taught by, and shall therefore know the 
Lord of heaven and earth, whom to know is life eter- 
nal. Your concession agrees admirably w^ith the de- 
claration of the Psalmist ; The Lord is good to all, 
and his tender mercies are overall his works.*" But 
can the tender mercies of God be over those whom he 
has doomed to remediless wo ? 

But it may be urged, that the arcana imperii of 
Hopkinsianism require a different understanding of 
this concession. It may be urged, that to procure the 
greatest amount of good in the universe, a portion of 
man must be left to sin and suffer, endlessly, for the 
glory of God, and the happiness of the saved ; and the 
following may be quoted from Dr. Edward's as strong 
authority ; 

" The sight of hell torments will exalt the happiness 
of the saints forever. It will not only make them 
more sensible of the greatness and freeness of the 
grace of God in their happiness ; but it will really 
make their happiness the greater, as it will make them 
more sensible of their own happiness ; it will give 
them a more hvely relish of it : it will make them 
prize it more. — When they see others, who were of 
the same nature, and born under the same circum- 
stances, plunged in such misery, and they so distin- 
guished — 0, it will make them sensible how happy 



144 CANDID REVIEW. 



they are. A sense of the opposite misery, in all 
cases, gr eatly increases the relish of any joy or plea- 
sure.''* 

What a beautiful illustration of the joys of the Hop- 
kinsian heaven ! 

You will notice, that I have not imputed these in- 
fernal sentiments to you, as the hidden meaning of 
your concession, but the quotation was made, that the 
reader may see in its naked deformity, the improve- 
ment on Calvinistic fatalism, urged by the followers 
of Dr. Hopkins, in the language of the citation from 
your Letter. 

And yet, I can perceive no other retreat from the 
doctrine of Universal salvation, on your own hypo- 
thesis, than is offered by this alternative. Unless 
happiness and misery are convertible terms, the illim- 
itable sutTerings of a portion of men, cannot surely 
conduce to their own happiness ; and if the greatest 
possible enjoyment will result from the government 
of God, notwithstanding the hopeless misery of a part^ 
it follows of necessity, that the Doctor's statement, 
must in effect be true. By what course of reasoning, 
or what passages of scripture, this figment of a distem- 
pered imagination is sustained, we have yet to learn. 

The following quotation from Rev. John Wesley's 
writings, will serve as a specimen of the dernier resort 
to which the orthodox are driven, by the lucid doctrine 
of the apostle. When a man of his acknowledged 
talents and information, descends to such pitiful, such 
€ontemptable quibbling, for the purpose of avoiding 
inevitable conclusions, we are left in wonder that he 
has exposed the weakness of his own sentiment, by 
dwelhng a moment on the subject. Ignorant and 

* The reader is left to decide, whether this advocate of the doC" 
trint of devils, would grace a seat in the Spanish Inquisition. Chris- 
tians have provided penitentiaries and state prisons for parents who 
should act on this principle in the present world. 



CANDID REVIEW. 



145 



weak indeed must be that mind, which cannot easily 
detect the gossamer web behind which he has attempt- 
ed to hide the Bible, and substitute in its place the un- 
doubted restoration of " the whole brute creation ! P' 
Does vulgar prejudice^ or the plain word of God take 
place'' in the restoration of the animal kingdom to a 
measure, according as they are capable^ of the liberty 
of the children of God If inferior animals are to 
be restored to a freedom of motion which they have 
lost^ through the misconduct of man, or the original 
sin of their own natures, perhaps the chapter and 
verse which contain the information can be pointed 
out, with some proof that they rejoice in the hope of 
this restitution ! 

" Away with vulgar prejudices, and let the plain 
word of God take place. ' They shall be delivered 
from the bondage of corruption into glorious liberty 
• even a measure, according as they are capable of the 
liberty of the children of God.' To decend to a 
few particulars. The whole brute creation will un- 
doubtedly be restored, not only to the vigour, strength, 
and swiftness, which they had at their creation, but 
to a far higher degree of each than they ever 
enjoyed. They will be restored, not only to that 
measure of understanding which they had in paradise, 
but to a degree of it, as much higher than that, as the 
understanding of an elephant is beyond that of a worni. 
And whatever affection they had in the garden of 
God, will be restored with vast increase, being exalt- 
ed and refined in a manner which we ourselves are 
not able to comprehend. The liberty they then had 
will be completely restored, and they will be free in 
all their notions." 

We agree in the sentiment, that great temporal suf- 
ferings are consistent with the benevolence of Deity. 
But, if the scripture were silent on the subject, the 
conclusion could not follow from the reason and fit- 

13 



14e CANDID REVIEW. 



ness of things, that a series of unmitigated and unend- 
ing suffering would result from the benevolence of 
God. But your own words condemn the sentiment, 
that endless misery is equally compatible with the 
goodness of God, as temporal calamities. Speaking 
of Judas, these are your words ; 

For whatever he may endure for a season, wheth- 
er in' this, or in the life to come, the eternal happiness 
of heaven will infinitely outweigh it, and render exis- 
tence to him an infinite blessing. 

You have here fairly refuted your own conclusions, 
by showing that the happiness of heaven will infinitely 
outweigh temporal calamities. You will find more 
difficulty in showing how endless suffering may be an 
infinite blessing. That a contrast, in our oim persons^ 
results in a higher degree of ^enjoyment, than would 
be afforded by one long summer's day of indolence 
and mirth,'' is evident from the experience of ages ; 
but shall we argue, that because a dinner of herbs" 
is welcome to a hungry man, therefore be should 
starve 2 The vague mode of reasoning to which you 
have resorted, could never be adopted but to assist an 
argument in distress. A state of suffering, followed 
hy enjoyment^ m^y result in good, for the very reason 
that that suffering is balanced by satisfaction. But 
can you maintain, that a state of suffering, unmixed 
with hope, and not succeeded by pleasure, can result 
in the same benefit ? But admitting the principle on 
which you would argue to be correct, and it will be 
seen to stand in the direct light of scripture and com- 
mon sense. It allows that any state of being which is 
consistent with the goodness of God in the present 
tense, may be continued through all future duration. 
This supposition is at open war with the apostle, who 
informs us, that mortal, mw^^ put on immortality, and 
corruption, incorruption. The sentiment you main- 
tain leads into the wilderness of uncertainty and ab- 



CANDID REVIEW. 14? 



surdity. Bat let us recur to scripture testimony, 
Paul in his 8th chapter to the Romans, speaks expli- 
citly on the subject. 

" For the earnest expectation of the creature wait- 
eth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the 
creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but 
by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. 
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered 
from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liber- 
ty of the children of God. For we know that the 
whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain togeth- 
er until now. And not only they^ but ourselves also, 
which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we our- 
selves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, 
to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are sav- 
ed by hope ; but hope that is seen is not hope ; for 
what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for ? But if 
we hope for that we see not, iheti do we with patience 
wait for it." 

That the reasoning of Paul may be shown to better 
advantage, the following is quoted from the translation 
of Griesbachby Mr. Kneeland. 

For the earnest expectation of the creation wait- 
eth for this revelation to the sons of God. For the 
creation was made subject to vanity, (not willingly, 
but through him who subjected it ;) in hope, that the 
creation itself will also be delivered, from the slavery 
of corruption, into the glorious freedom of the children 
of God. For we know that the whole creation groan- 
eth and is in labour until now ; and not only 5o, but 
ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the spirit, 
even we ourselves groan within ourselves, looking for 
an adoption, even the redemption of our body. For 
we are saved under this hope ; but hope which is 
seen, is not hope ; for what a man seeth, why doth he 
yet hope for ? But if we hope for that which we see 
not, then we look for it with patience.'* 



148 



CANDID REVIEW. 



On comparing the two versions, every person may 
satisfy himself that the trifling difference in the lan- 
guage, merely renders the meaning of the apostle 
more explicit in the improved, than in the comrnon 
translation. That the creature of the common version, 
is the whole creation^ is evident from the 22d verse, 
where the idea is fully expressed. The object of hope 
is most clearly designated in the improved version, 
though the first line of the 19th verse convejs the 
same idea. It is moreover observable, that Paul is 
not speaking of a portion of the universe as being in 
this state of hope; for he says — and not only ^Aey, 
but OURSELVES also, which have the first fruits of the 
spirit, even we ourselves, groan within ourselves, wait- 
ing for the adoption, to wit^ the redemption of our 
body/' 

But what is the adoption for which the apostle, in 
common with the whole creation, waiteth ? Ans. 
^' But ye have received the spirit of adoption, where- 
by we cry, Abba, Father.'' This then was the hope, 
for which the whole creation waited, and for which it 
travailed in pain to be delivered. And shall it be de- 
livered? Yes. "Because the creature itself [the 
whole creation] shall be delivered from the bondage 

OF CORRUPTION, INTO THE GLORIOUS LIBERTY OF THE 

CHILDREN OF GoD." Are the declarations of the 
apostle in the 5th chapter at variance with the doctrine 
of Universal salvation taught in this ? 

I have now attempted to show, that if the govern- 
ment of God result in the best good of the universe, 
all must be happy ; or, that the proportional quantum 
of blessedness lost by the damned, must be enjoyed by 
the saved, and that if the latter be the case, it is mere 
assumption, warranted neither by scripture, reason, 
nor experience. 

Nero played on the fiddle while Rome was wrapt 
in flames. — True, but do you argue that JVero was 



CANDID REVIEW. 



149 



happy ? If so, let works and faith correspond — show 
your faith by your works — or, in other words, go, and 
do hkewise. 

I have not thought proper to quote or reason at large 
in proof of the position, that temporal evils may result 
in the benefit of those " who are exercised thereby.'*' 
The fact is indisputable by a recurrence to the expe- 
rience of ages, and is fully established in the scriptures 
of the Old and New Testaments. If, sir, you are now 
ready to redeem the pledge, be pleased to tell how 
eternal misery in the future world is consistent with 
the same benevolence." 

If great temporal sufferings are proved by facts'' 
to be consistent with Divine benevolence, you are 
pledged to " prove by facts" that eternal sufferings in 
the future world are compatible with the same benevo- 
lence. Do ihis^ or your pledge is violated. 

That the reader of the Inquirer may learn to what 
miserable shifts our opponents are driven by the cita- 
tion from Rom. 8, already noticed, I will quote Dr. Ed- 
wards, on the passage ; if the quotation be not suffi- 
ciently disgusting^ those who wish a further acquaint- 
ance with this celebrated opposer, are at liberty to 
purchase his works entire. 

For the creation is subject to that use. to which it 
is apphed by sinful men, which as to the end of its ex- 
istence, (the Divine glory) is in its own natural ten- 
dency, vain and unprofitable, and in many respects 
positively sinful. I say, to this it is subject, not volun- 
tarily, but on account of him, for the sake of his glory 
{dia governing the accusative) or for the accomplish- 
ment of the mysterious, but wise and glorious purpo- 
ses of him, who subjected the same in hope, that this 
same creation shall be delivered from this unprofitable 
and sinful use^ which may justly be considered as a 
state of bondage to zV, into a liberty, in several impor- 
tant respects, similar to that of the children of God ; 

13^ 



150 CANDID REVIEW. 



or at least shall be delivered at the time^ when the 
children of God shall be admitted to the enjoyment of 
their most glorious liberty." 

Without stopping to comment on what I consider 
the most sublimated nonsense, permit me to say, that, 
having shown that the whole creation shall be deliv- 
ered from the bondage of corruption, your promise 
cannot be redeemed — your pledge must be violated. 
But you have pledged yourself to the performance of 
an impossibility, and regard to your own character for 
veracity requires that you either attempt it, or ac- 
knowledge the force of unsophisticated truth. If you 
have light on this subject, permit it to shine. 

My intention was, to complete the Review with this 
Number, but some closing remarks are necessarily 
postponed for a future opportunity. 
Yours, 

CANDIDUS. 
APPEAXi TO THE PUBLIC; 

AND SPECIALLY TO THE READERS OE THE INQUIRER. 

The attention which has evidently been excited by 
this Review, induces me to address the concluding 
number to your particular notice. The disadvantages 
under which I have laboured, claim your indulgence 
for the manner^ but not for the matter. If error have 
been detected, and truth illustrated, my aim is accom- 
plished ; if not, I have written in vain. The state- 
ments which I purposed to maintain respecting the 
Letters, were briefly ; — That they contain false asser- 
tions, self-destroying deductions, and mutilations of 
scripture, bearing obvious marks of " handling the 
word of God deceitfully.'' If these statements have 
been stistained, the object for which I have written is 



CANDID REVIEW. 151 



obtained ; If not, you are empannelled as a jury to de- 
cide that my pledge has not been redemed. Should 
this be your decision, it is but reasonable that you pre- 
sent the points wherein I have failed, which you are 
requested to do in justification of the verdict. 

In noticing the assertions of Mr. H. relative to the 
doctrine taught by Universalists, they are termed in 
this Review, absolute^ unqalified, FALSEHOOD. 
Here assertion is met by assertion ; as such, one is 
worth precisely as much as the other. Mr. H. has not 
oflered a solitary fact to support Ms — he cannot. He 
knows that the reverse of his position can be support- 
ed in the most demonstrative manner. If he do not, 
let him appeal to facts ^ and settle the question of his 
veracity at once. 

The deductions which are considered self-destruc- 
tive, are those which he has drawn from the supposed 
immoral tendency of the doctrine. To settle this 
conclusively, appeal has been made to historical facts, 
and the concessions of the Fathers of the Protestant 
Church. The persecutions, the massacres, the mur- 
ders, and general immoralities of both Catholics and 
Protestants stand out in bold relief against the foun- 
dation principle of orthodoxy, with the broad day-ligtht 
of demonstration ; and the writings, the lives, and 
confessions, of Luther, Beza, Calvin, Musculus, Mel- 
ancthon, Bucer, with the explicit testimonies of Bishop 
Burnet, Erasmus, Strype, and others, are absolutely 
irresistible. Thus then, admit that inference drawn 
from the conduct of professors, is the certain criterion 
forjudging any creed, (agr^able to his theory) and 
orthodoxy is proved false. — And that modern ortho- 
doxy does not redeem the character lost by our pro- 
genitors, we shall see in a subsequent part of this 
number. 

In support of the statement, that Mr. H. has handled 
the word of God deceitfully, nothing more is requi- 



152 CANDID REVIEW. 



site than to read his quotations, and compare them 
with the Bible. Biit, setting aside all other instances, 
he has brought forward two citations in proof of the 
fact and the time of a future judgment, involving the 
main point in dispute, both of which are garbled, as 
appears, for the very purpose of imposing upon the 
ignorant, the very people for whom, by his own con- 
fession, these Letters were written. But in addition 
to this fact, he has not even deigned to note either 
book, chapter or verse, in which they are to be found. 
Important as the subject is deemed, he has not es- 
teemed such malversation below the cause for which 
he has written. I now ask with confidence, is my 
pledge redeemed ? 

But the time has now come when the tables must 
be turned on my opponent.^ — After writing eight long 
letters, and losing himself in the mazes of his own 
imaginations, he appears at last to be embarrassed^ as 
the commencement of his ninth Letter expresses in 
the following words ; 

In pursuing the subject before us, I have felt no 
small embarrassment from the fact that Universalists 
possess no uniform character. They are restoration- 
ists, destructionists, strict universalists, or fatalists, as 
will best serve their purpose, which is, at any rate^ to 
get rid of the doctrine of endless punishment."" 

I have no room to make observations on this speci- 
men of assertion, but the inquiry is suggested, whether 
Christ'mns [or General Baptists] who believe in the 
annihilation of the wicked, and are properly termed 
destructionists^ are Universalists ? .dll Calvinists are 
fatalists^ but no Calvinist is a Universalist. But the 
paragraph is brought forward that Mr. H. may be 
judged by his own words ; 

I feel constrained to regard the doctrine in ques- 
tion with much suspicion, because it stands opposed to 
the dictates of conscience and the natural apprehensions 



CANDID REVIEW. 



153 



of mm. By whatever name you please to call it, 
whether conscience, reason, or the direct monition of 
God, it is not to be denied that there is something in 
the mind of man, or in the circmnstances of this earth- 
ly existence that forebodes the same punishment to the 
wicked in another world, which is denounced against 
them in the Bible." " In every age, and on every 
side of the globe, men have generally believed that in 
the future world the righteous will be rewarded and 
the wicked punished." "The amount of what I 
would say under this head is this, — the foreboding of 
future punishment to the wicked, which has prevailed 
in every age and among all nations, is strong presump- 
tive evidence that they will be punished ; and decisive 
evidence that universalism is inconsistent with the 
views which men naturally have of their own deserts, 
and of the divine character." 

Let us remark, that a favourite doctrine of this Cal« 
vinistic Arminian, is the total depravity of man by 
nature, the entire absence of all moral good, or the 
ability to perceive truth, and that by ordinary genera- 
tion, he sinned in Adam and fell with him in this first 
transgression. Of the consequences to which we are 
liable through the evil of the nature given us by God, 
Dr. Edwards gives a glowing description, from which 
the following is extracted; " When you come to be 
a firebrand of hell, you will be a firebrand in two re- 
spects ; viz. as you will be all on fire, full of the fire of 
God's wrath, and also as you will be all on a blaze 
with spite and malice towards God." Let us not for- 
get, that the natu7ril appi^ehensions of totally depraved 
man, fully agree with the scriptures, in foreboding 
"ihe same punishment to the wicked in another world, 
v/hich is denounced against them in the Bible.'' Nor 
does the testimony of these totally depraved wretches 
stop here ; this foreboding is decisive evidence that 
Universalism is'' false, or in other words, " inconsis- 



154 



CANDID REVIEW. 



tent with the views which men naturally have of their 
own character 

Without pausing to inquire, whether the heathen 
nations have uniformly, or generally, believed in a fu- 
ture state of existence,*^ it may not be amiss to ask, if 
all nations have been blessed with a plenary revela- 
tion from God,! on this life and soul of orthodoxy ? If 
they have, why send missionaries to convert them ? If 
not, why dj^es Mr. H. bring in the apprehensions of 
men in prpof of a tenet, for which he in vain looks to 
scripture ? But granting the premises in full, let us 
see the result. Speaking of the antediluvians, and 
the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, and in view 
of the arguments for Universal Salvation derived from 
the goodness of God, Mr. Hawes asserts ; 

" So Noah would have reasoned, had he been a 
Universalist ; and so doubtless the antediluvians did 
reason when warned by that preacher of righteous- 
ness, of the threatened judgment. So Lot would have 
reasoned, had he been a Universalist ; and so did 
reason the inhabitants of Sodom.'' 

Notwithstanding the absurdity of supposing that 
the whole antediluvian world, save eight, became 
Universalists, with all their natural apprehensions^ the 
absurdity is heightened by taking into account the 
following sentence ; The doctrine of future punish- 
ment is so ungrateful and trying to all the feelings of 
the natural heart, that nothing but the fullest evidence 
of its truth could induce men generally to believe it.'' 

*Dr. Young says " The heaUien world confessed, that they rather 
hoped than firmly believed in immortality." Cicero confesses that 
when in the shades of Tusculum, absorbed in reflection, he fully 
believed in immortality ; but when he was in the uproar of the 
city, and the bustle of the forum, all these convictions melted 
away. When this was the condition of the learned and contem- 
plative, what must have been the belief of the majority I 

t Mr. H. says, " The fact and the duration of a future punish- 
ment are purely matters of revelation." 



CANDID REVIEW. 155 



But the dilemma into which these vague assertions 
have brought this champion of human misery, is not 
yet fully exhibited. The natural apprehensions of 
men, with the fullest evidence of the truth of his foun- 
dation principle, with all its sanctions and barriers, as 
acknowledged by Dr. Scott, were " unable to affix 
boundaries to the swelling tide of human depravity." 
Alas ! that this Babel of human invention should fall 
before the weapons prepared for its defence. 

In answer to the declarations of Universahsts, rela- 
tive to the prejudices of men against the doctrine of 
Universal grace, Mr. H. opposes the following asser- 
tion ; 

" As to the doctrine being opposed by the preju» 
dices of men, this is so far from true, that it is every 
way adapted to please and gratify the desires of the 
natural heart. If the doctrine were true and revealed 
in the Bible, all men would gladly embrace it. Noth- 
ing could be more agreeable to every candidate for 
eternity, than an assurance of the final happiness of 
all mankind." 

In the very face of this paragraph, I am constrain- 
ed to say, that I know 

*' Men that make 
Envy and crooked malice, nourishment,^^ 

and who, though they believe themselves candidates 
for eternity," appear to rejoice over the prospect of 
witnessing the torments of the damned," as if in anti- 
cipating the horrid catastrophe, they were " more sen- 
sible of their own happiness," 

Respecting the gratification of " the desires of the 
natural heart,'' I shall only say, that if it be so, the 
heart must be unnatural which is not pleased in the 
prospect of universal holiness and happiness. Paul 
speaks severely of those who are without natural 
affection," whom he ranks with the worst characters 
- in the Bible. 



156 CANDID RE VIE 

On the Arminian principle, Mr, H. opposes the doc- 
trine on this Wise ; The doctrine of universal salva- 
tion is inconsistent with the character of God as 
a rewarder, and with the principles of a righteous 
moral government. If in the future world vice is not 
to be punished and virtue rewarded, then God is not 
a righteous moral Governor.'' 

But to settle the certainty of a partial salvation, and 
to cut short some of their reward in a future world, 
for services rendered to God in this, the nature, or 
properties of a reward are explained in the following 
summary expression ; What is bestowed indiscrim- 
inately on all is reward to none." Thus is an appeal 
to your understanding instantaneous and decisive. 
You may have learned the maxim, that the hope of 
reward sweetens labour,'' but should all who labour 
indiscriminately receive their due wages, it is no lon- 
ger a reward. The motive no longer exists for exer- 
tion — no reward is offered, because every man re- 
ceives his penny ; and that is no satisfaction in 
which all partake ! ! 

You will recollect what has just been quoted from 
Mr. H. " If in the future world, vice is not to be pun- 
ished, and virtue rewarded, God is not a righteous 
moral Governor." It is necessary to keep this in 
mind, that we may see the application of his philippic 
against Universalists, when it comes home to his bu- 
siness and bosom. Aftef opposing the tenet of Uni- 
versahsts, that the Salvation of God, is salvation from 
sin, or a sinning* disposition, and denying that he who 
is duly punished can be saved, because not saved from 
the curse of sin, he says ; 

" According to them, there is no forgiveness, with 
God. Every man who sins, is punished to the fifU 
extent of his guilt. [Here is one truth.] And if he 
is saved, it is not from the penalty of the law, which 
takes its course with every offender, but from the 



CANDID REVIEW. 



157 



dominion of a , sinful temper, or a depraved heart. 
[True again.] But what says the Bible ? [Yes, what 
says it ?] Does that explain salvation to mean, simply, 
deliverance from the power of sin ? Is all that it says 
of justification, of forgiveness, of pardon, [See Isa. 
40 : 1, 2.] of remission of sin, without meaning ? [No.] 
Do the scriptures, after all that has been said and sung 
on the Heavenly theme, give us no idea of a pardon- 
ing, forgiving, justifying God Forgiveness is re- 
mission of penality; pardon is deliverence of the 
guilty from the due punishment of their sins.*" 

After carefully comparing this quotation with the 
one a little above, will you say that this description of 
salvation is " consistent with the character of God as 
rewarder?'' Or will you answer the question propo- 
sed by Mr. Hawes relative to Universalists ? 

*^ Why do the abettors of this system find it neces- 
sary so to torture and wrest the scriptures in order to 
make them speak the sentiments of their creed 

Let it now be asked in the ftice of these clashing 
testimonies, on what plan shall an individual be sav- 
ed, with the consent of God's justice ? The scriptures 
declare all men sinners, and as fully assert, that every 
man, without respect to persons, shall be rewarded 
according to his works. Mr. H. settles the question 
on the Arminian plan, by charging God with being an 
unrighteous moral Governor, if sinners are not pun- 
ished in a future world, and to strengthen it as far as 
assertion can go, he assures us, that since such retri- 
bution does not take place in this world," it evidently 
must in the future. But forgetting, or intending to 
brow beat by the most consummate arrogance, the 
understanding of his readers, he finds it necessary to 
meet the Universalist by a counter argument. Hence 
the UneversaUst, who has already been accused of 
setting aside the sanctions of the divine law, is now 
assailed by the complaint, that God's mercy is also get 

U 



158 



CANDID REVIEW. 



aside, and Mr. H. seems to quarrel in earnest, lest 
some should enjoy happiness consistently with the 
justice of God. While with one hand he hurls the 
thunders of Sinai, and is jealous of the law, with the 
other he extends the offers of mercy, conditional on 
the hell-deserving character of the claimant. Do you 
see the least exaggeration in this statement ? 

Let me see wherein 
My pen hath wronged him ; if I do him right, 
Then he hath wronged himself." 

Perhaps, however, my powers of discernment are 
overrated, for Mr. H. assures us, with the whole au- 
thority of his ipse dixit that 

" Universahsm perverts the judgment and stupifies 
the conscience, so that the mind under the influence of 
'it, becomes incapable of feeling the force of evidence 
and of having any proper sense of moral obligation/* 

Should you rest s^atisfied with the logical propriety 
of his decision, I must submit ; but I see not why the 
infallibility of the Pope has so long been rejected, 
whose credentials make it as clear that he cannot err, 
as do those of the Protestants that they do not. What- 
ever wrong may be done to the cause of truth by his 
assertion, I am not now disposed to retaliate in the 
same manner, because a paragraph which now meets 
the eye, convinces me, that his " conscience^' is not so 

stupified''' as to prevent his "feeling the force of evi- 
dence,'' and instinctively pointing out the very place 
where his argument is defective, and where his scheme 
resembles the toes of the image. True, a spark of 
passion discolours the acknowledgment, but it only 
renders the fact more glaring. Read for yourselves. 

" I am not to be met here with the thread-bare 
slang of Universahsm [quite classical] respecting elec- 
tion, and decrees, as confining men in their sins and 
making it physically impossible for them to escape. 



CANDID REVIEW. 



159 



Whatever may he true respecting the doctrine expres- 
sed in those terms, one thing is plain ; the Bible does 
not so teach them, [I think so too] nor does any in- 
telligent Calvinist so hold them as to destroy the free 
agency of man^^ pv the sincerity of God in the offers 
©f his mercy. The invitations of the gospel are free, 
made sincerely to all, and all who will, may accept 
them. This I know is, by Universahsts, charged as 
an inconsistency upon Calvinism ; and they are for 
ever talking, and writing, and preaching about it, as 
though this were w^orking out their salvation. No in- 
consistency canhe shown ! bat I \y\\\ not, in this place 
argue the point wdth them.'" 

Whether it be the slang of Universalism, or matter 
of fact, every man of sense must admit, that Calvinism, 
is the system of doctrine, taught by John Calvin, the 
murderer of Servetus ; an appellation not likely to be 
misunderstood by any one. The unnatural alliance 
between this and Arminianism, has no claim to the 
name of either. John Calvin's Calvinism is no more 
like the Arminianism of James Arminius, than the 
preaching of modern doctors of Divinity, is hke that 
of Paul of Tarsus. Dreadful as was the scheme of 
Calvin, it went directly through with election and 
decrees,'' and cut down, with the relentless hand of a 
sturdy villain^ all those whom its author imagined God 
had predestinated to w^rath, whether men or angels. 
Neither age, nor sex was spared— the system w^ent 
straight forward. Calvin had no eye to pity, nor 
would he raise a hand to save. But the decision of 
the council of Dort, settled the heresy of Arminius, 

* A Calvinistic v^riter, in exhibiting- the advantages of Cal- 
vinism over Arminianism, says ; " The Calvinistic system sap- 
poses the salvation of some to be secured ; but on the Arminian 
system there is no security for the success of the g'ospel in a 
single instance^ from the creation of the world to the judgment 
day." 



jGO CANDID REVIEW. 



fay the immolation of Barneveldt, who stood in his de*- 
ceased master's place on the trial. He was condemn- 
ed by orthodox Calvinists, for maintaining the princi- 
ples avowed by Mr. H. though a professed Calvinist. 
The intelligent Calvinist,'^ if he be also consistent, 
rejects the scheme advocated by Mr. H. as puerile, 
and falling far short of his ideas, either as to salva- 
tion, or the cause of it. Whether the author of the 
Letters will at any future time, " argue the point with'^ 
those who deny the general invitations of the gospel, 
as a part of the system of Calvin, you may easily 
judge, after reading Calvin's Institutes, a book former^ 
hj in much repute. 

We have seen that Mr. H. appears determined, 
any rate^ to maintain the doctrine of endless misery, 
and that to do this, both consistency and truth have 
been sacrificed. He has, however, spoken the truth 
rather unwittingly in the following declaration. What 
is to be the fate of the culprits, who practice vices 
which bring their own chastisement with them,*" ap- 
pears a problem. If the law is satisfied, as he would 
term it, I perceive no claim to lie against them in a 
future state of being ; for even my opponent allows, 
that if they are not punished in this life, they may 
justly be in the life to come. This, I think, implies, 
that if punished in this life, that punishment is suffi- 
cient. On the Arminian side of his system, I see not 
but he must be the recipient of blessedness, or remain 
in a state of quiescence. But here is the concession. 

" Admit, if you please, that flagrant vices common- 
ly bring their own chastisement with them." 

Whatever was meant by this concession, you will 
be at no loss to discover, that the want of uniformity 
in character, which is disgraceful, and a badge of er- 
ror, when found on Universalists, is so far from wrong 
when found in company with the orthodox, that it is 
an absolute sine qua non. My antagonist has declared 



CANDID REVIEW. 



161 



that men are not, and cannot be adequately punished 
in this life, while he admits, as if by accident, that 
flagrant vices commonly bring their own punishment. 
Which is true ? Both carmot be. 

Let a brief synopsis close the present Number, and 
this Review. 

The first four Letters, are principally occupied by 
an appeal to the ignorance and prejudices of the read- 
ers. All is assertion, unsupported by a solitary im- 
portant fact, either as respects the doctrine taught or 
the conduct of the professors. An appeal has been 
made to facts, and the common sense of mankind, 
whether the declaration of the Letter writer were 
consistent with a state of civilized society, and the 
charge of falsehood was returned, which will be main- 
tained whenever the case may require it. 

In examining the foundation principle of Mr. H. 
the most incontestible facts were adduced, fixing the 
character which he had drawn for Universalists, on 
those of his own creed. To these will now be added 
some few precious confessions of Synods, Presbyteries, 
and Associations, giving a picture of modern ortho- 
doxy in the words of its advocates. 

" While they (the Synod,) beUeve that there is a 
time to mourn, and a time to rejoice, they are con- 
strained to admit that the former appears to be prin- 
cipally their duty at the present season.'' " The 
Synod believe that it is our sins which have separated 
between us and our God, that he is chastising us for 
our unfaithfulness.^' " The lukewarmness and worlds 
ly spirit which so generally prevail among the profes- 
sed children of God thoughout our bounds, the Synod 
believe to be the immediate cause of much of that 
indifference to the one thing needful, which is so un- 
happily prevalent among men of the world." 

While the low state of religious feeling in our 
church calls for deep repentance and humiliation be- 

14* 



162 CANDID REVIEW. 



fore God, the Synod regret to say that very few of 
our people appear to feel properly sensible of their 
situation and their duty.'^ 

The Synod are also constrained with pain to no* 
tice the great neglect to sanctify the Lord's day, which 
appears to be increasing to an alarming degree." — 

We are with grief compelled to witness parties of 
pleasure devoting this sacred day to purposes of a- 
musement and dissipation.'' 

" Clergymen deceased. — God in his righteous dis- 
pleasure for our sins, is laying a heavy hand upon the 
Ministry of reconciliation. No less than eleven of our 
Fathers and Brethren in the ministry have within the 
year past, and several in the midst of their usefulness, 
been called away by death.'' 

" In the commencement of their narrative, the 
Synod enumerate and deplore the moral evils which 
exist within their bounds, and which call for humilia- 
tion, fasting, and prayer." 

The deductions from these facts are now at his ser- 
vice, and are proposed for your consideration. 

The charge of inconsistency alleged against Univer- 
salists, was apparently intended as general, and not as 
appertaining to the writings or preaching of any one 
man. The charge is now retorted with proof of the 
most palpable inconsistency, drawn from his own wri- 
tings. It is demonstrable that he affirms and denies 
the same proposition, as the object which he has in 
view seems to Yec[\{\Te tergiversation^ and at all hazards 
appears determined, either on Calvinistic, Arminian, 
or Hopkinsian principles, or all united, to shut some 
from the region of blessedness in a future life.— * 
Whether these different modes of defence, used in the 
same series of Letters, argue for or against the cause 
in which he is engaged, is left to the good sense of the 
community to decide. Whether his mutilations of 
scripture, arrogant assumptions, unsupported asser- 



CANDID REVIEW. 163 



lions, or puerile reasoning, have gained friends to the 
cause, or honour to himself, is not for me to decide. 
For myself, I can truly say, that my object has been to 
elicit truth. If in doing this, I have wounded the 
feelings of the writer, or his friends, my only plea is 
the necessity of the case. Acknowledging no man 
as master, I have fearlessly exposed in part the de- 
ceptious mode of argument, the falsehood of assertions 
and the miscitations of scripture. If in doing what 
was considered a duty, a single expression is rashly 
made, or a wrong principle inculcated, my pledge is 
given to acknowledge it publicly, and to make all the 
reparation in my power. Until this is shown, I claim 
the boon of having intended well, and at least, of 
having written nothing subversive of good morals, or 
of injuring the cause of truth, in defence of which I 
am engaged. With a warm desire for the progress of 
knowledge, and the consequent well-being of society^ 
I remain your willing servant in the gospel. 



CANDIDUS. 



FftlENDLY LETTERS 
TO A CANDIDATE FOR THE MINISTRY. 



tETTER 1. 

Dear Sir— The best return I can make for the 
confideace you repose in me, is to attempt the fulfil- 
ment of your request. In doing this, I shall endeavor 
to confirm the good opinion you have expressed of my 
willingness to communicate information ; of my abili- 
ty to fulfil the task imposed upon me by your friend- 
ship, let the result determine. 

In examining the multiplicity of texts you have quo- 
ted, and the arguments you have expressed, or impli- 
ed in their production, necessity will impel me to ob- 
serve the utmost brevity, which may be consistent 
with the subject. Your attention will therefore be 
taxed, that you may be able to follow up the illustra- 
tions, and proceed in the course of investigation which 
will probably lead you into that liberty wherewith 
Christ hath made us free. Should you deem any of my 
facts or arguments untenable, or obscure, a )rint from 
you will be followed by further illustration/ or an ac- 
knowledgment of error. 

First, then, we will look at your quotation from 
Gen. 6:3,'' My spirit shall not always strive with 
man.'' The argument you deduce from this, is, that 
what is termed a state of probation, may close zviihin 
the present span of existence, and man be thus left to 
unmitigated and unending suffering, in a state of cease- 



CANDID REVIEW. 165 



less rebellion against God. To show that this is not ^ 
the import of the passage, it might be sufficient to re- 
mark, that the connection is a refutation of the as- 
. sumption. The subject being utterly distinct from 
that to which it is thought to apply, the argument it 
was supposed to furnish, is entirely nugatory. But . 
perhaps you wifl^a^^ for a rational understanding of 
the passage ; I will auggest one. Please read the 
verse thus ; My spirit shall not always strive against 
man." This reading, if correct, you must acknowl- 
edge, will materially alter the sense. That it is cor- 
rect, is made to appear from the connexion. The rea- 
son given, why the*stfife will cease, is, " for that he 
also is flesh and it is added, " yet his days shall be 
an hundred and twenty years.'' In accordance with 
this sense, are the words of the Psalmist, " He know- 
eth our frames- he remembereth that we are dust.'' 
But Isa. 57 : 16, is directly to the point. " For I will 
not contend forever, neither will I be always wroth ; 
for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which 
I have made." But besides this lucid illustration of 
the prophet, your own reading will furnish repeated 
instances in the scriptures, where the term with is im- 
properly used (or against. I ask you now, seriously 
to reflect ; and if you are satisfied that the connexion 
will not warrant the common use of the text — and if 
your view of its application militate against clear and 
explicit scripture testimony — admit that one stum- 
bling block, at least, is removed. 

Having summarily disposed of the first passage, let 
us now briefly examine the second, found 2 Cor, 6 : 
2, Behold, now is the accepted time ; behold, now 
is the day of salvation." That the apostle cited this 
as the sense of some former scripture, is evident from 
the first part of the verse. For he saith, I have heard 
thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation 
have I succoured thee f ' and then adds, as giving the 



166 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



sense and fulfillment of this scripture, Behold, now 
is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day of sal- 
vation." In referring to the original scripture, Isa. 
49 : 8, we learn, that the prophet is uttering a proph% 
ccy of Christ, or the gospel dispensation, and there- 
fore the use to which you apply it, is entirely irrele- 
vant. No man has a right to limit the Holy One of 
Israel, as to the times and seasons which he has put in 
his own power, nor do we manifest a desire rightly to 
divide the word of truth, in applying a whole day, or 
dispensation of God, to the term of a single revolution 
of our earth. The whole context, whether of the ori- 
ginal prediction, or the quota|io1i by Paul, shows the 
rnisapphcation of the passage. With as good a plea 
of consistency, might the primitive church have cut otf 
from the hope of salvatioa, all succeeding generations, 
as a minister of the 19th century, limit the time of 
mercy to the fleeting hours of a solar day. 

But, that not the shadow of a doubt may rest on this 
subject, be pleased to turn with me and read, Isa. 49 : 
6, ^Mt is a light thing that thou shouldest be my ser- 
vant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the 
preserved of Israel ; 1 will also give thee for a light 
to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation un- 
to the end of the earth." This, and its connexions, 
are clear indications, that the gospel kingdom in pros- 
pect was the burden of this prophecy, and the quota- 
tion by an apostle, was a mere declaration that the 
prophecy was then in a state of fulfilment. But this 
is not all ; not a word connected with the quotation 
from. Paul has the least reference to the subject on 
which you intended the citation to apply. If this 
w^ere its import, why did not the apostle make the ap- 
plication ? 

I am persuaded you will not upbraid me with pro- 
lixity, nor with invidious remarks, if 1 dwell on this 
theme some minutes longer. Preachers, who would 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



167 



not be thought to lack understanding, go on from Sab- 
bath to Sabbath, and from year to year, and from 
youth to age, telling from the same pulpit, to the same 
hearers, Now is the accepted time — ^this day you 
have an opportunity to secure your salvation, by mak- 
ing your peace with God — to-morrow, or to-night, 
may be too late.'' To say nothing of the arrogance 
of this course, where is the consistency, the propriety 
of these annunciations ? If salvation be of grace, is 
the Lord's hand shortened that he cannot save ? If it 
be of works, who shall say when he, or any other, has 
earned a bhssful immortality ? Do not, my friend, I 
beseech you, again use this passage for the same pur- 
pose, until a thus saith the Lord shall plead your jus- 
tification. 

The text next to be considered is Mark 16 : 16, " He 
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; but he 
that believeth not shall be damned.'' In noticing this 
passage, 1 shall not at present urge that certain fathers 
of the church reject the last twelve verses of this chap- 
ter"^ as spurious, because it can be examined, under 
the impression that it is genuine, in much less time. 
That it has served as the foundation of many discours- 
es, is not more evident, than that it has been used 
without the example of either Christ or his apostles. 
It is no part of the commission given by Christ to his 
disciples, nor did either the master or servant thus 
preach. But to illustrate the text more fully, we will, 
if you please, turn to the passage and read its connex- 
ion. The commission is contained in the preceding 
verse, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gos- 
pel to every creature."" In this short, but compre- 
hensive command, is contained the whole commission 

* Jerome says, that few of the Greek copies he had seen, had 
the last twelve verses of this chapter. Tiiey are still wanting" 
in many MS3. and are not comprehended in the canons of Euse= 
him. 



168 CANDID REVIEW, 



of the Master of Assemblies, to his humble followers. 
To preach the gospel, and that only, was the impera* 
tive command of the risen Saviour. Without dwell- 
ing on the term gospel^ which was the burden of the 
apostles' directions, we can easily determine that the 
text under consideration was merely a description of 
the consequences Avhich would follow the preaching 
of the gospel, and that, therefore, it had nothing to do 
with the message, which they had in charge to deliver* 
If it had, the apostles were unfaithful to their trust, 
for we find not the least vestige of it in their preach- 
ing. Was the message true, before the apostles heard 
or delivered it ? if it were, the unbelief of the whole 
world could not make it void ; if it werefalse^ the be- 
lief of millions could not make it true. Truth is, and 
ever must be, independent of the credence or infideli- 
ty of those to whom it is declared. Nor can belief, or 
the want of it, extend farther than the mind of him who 
receives or rejects the message which is delivered. 
In the 14th verse, "Jesus upbraided them [the disci- 
ples] with their unbelief and hardness of heart/^ In 
the next verse he gives the commission, and in the 
succeeding verse, represents the consequences that 
would flow from unbeliefs the same unbelief which 
then laboured in their minds. For it is a remarkable 
fact, that they were then ignorant of the breath of 
their commission, and of the spirituality of the king- 
dom they were to set up at the hazard of their lives. 
They were then in a state of damnation, or condem- 
nation, the same state in which all unbelievers have 
been since their day, while unbelief continued, and no 
longer. You will take my idea from John 3 : 18, "He 
that believeth not is condemned already.'^ Verse 19^ 
^' And this is the condemnation, that light is come in- 
to the world, and men loved darkness rather than 
light, because their deeds were evil.'' Thus you see, 
that the condemnation is in this world, where unbe' 



s 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 169 

lief exists, and that it is the effect of, and co-existent 
with, a disbelief of the truth. Thus unbeUef leads to 
bondage, to darkness, and fear ; behef gives joy and 
peace, and causes men to stand fast in the liberty 
wherewith Christ hath made them free. 

Another circumstance to be considered is, the rule 
by which believers were to be known. The rule fol- 
lows the verse to which you have alluded, in these 
words, which you will do well to remember in your 
next dissertation on this subject. " And these signs 
shall follow them that believe ; in my name shall they 
cast out devils [demons] ; they shall speak with new 
tongues ; they shall take up serpents ; and if they 
drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them ; they 
shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.'' 
And in the last verse it is said, ''And they went forth 
and preached every where, the Lord working with 
them, and confirming the word with signs following/' 
Now, sir, let us inspect the word and the testimony^ 
Gn your hypothesis, what soul can look for salvation ? 
Either lower the tone of your text, to a temperal con- 
sequence, or you land in the darkness of intellectual 
midnight. Is it possible, my dear sir, that you can re- 
main ignorant of the absurdity of the argument gener- 
ally deduced from this citation ? Does man merit any 
thing of God by giving credit to the message which he 
has sent — or rather can we refuse assent to a proposi- 
tion supported by unquestionable testimony ? You 
will not, most surely, admit that assent is to be ^iven 
with thelips,while the understanding is unenlightened* 
Man may enjoy the satisfaction arising frpm the be- 
lief of good news — he may suffer in consequence of 
disbelieving the good news, '' the word of truth, the 
gospel of his salvation,'' — but remember, that unbelief 
shall vanish, for all shall be taught of God ; the deaf 
ear shall be unstopped ; the tongue of the dumb shall 
sing ; the lame shall leap as a hart ; and the glory of 

15 



J 70 FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



the Lord shall yet be revealed, and all flesh shall see 

it TOGETHERa 

Yours in friendship, 

JULIUS. 

Z.&TTER 2. 

In this epistle, I purpose to pursue the examination 
of those passages you have cited from the Old Testa- 
ment, supposed by you to favour the common doctrine 
of never-ending suffering. The first that presents, is 
not referred either to book, chapter or verse, but sup- 
posed to refer to Isa. 10 : 22, For though thy peo- 
ple, Israel, be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of 
them shall return.'^ It is not said, as you have quo- 
ted, only a remnant shall be saved." Paul, in quo- 
ting this passage^ says, " Though the number of the 
children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant 
shall be saved." — Rom. 9 : 27. You will be pleased 
to notice, in the first place, that the passage has noth- 
ing to do with a future state. The prophet was speak- 
ing of the return of the children of Israel from captiv- 
ity, as is evident by the context ; 

*'And it shall come to pass in that day, that the rem- 
nant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of 
Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote 
them ; but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One 
of Israel, in truth. 

The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Ja- 
cob, unto the mighty God.'' 

Then comes the passage already quoted, and the 
tXose of the 1 1th chapter shows, that all who were left, 
should return to their own land. 

"And there shall be an highway for the remnant of 
his people, which shall be left, from Assyria ; like a« 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 171 

it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the 
land of Egypt.*" 

Now can you, or any mail, show a connexion be- 
tween this prophecy and a future, never-ending state ? 
I think not ; and as Paul makes no such use of the 
citation, modesty should teach us not to be wise above 
what is written. But, nevertheless, as Paul is accus- 
ed of teaching the salvation of the few, and the utter 
rejection of the many, on the Calvinistic principle of 
election and reprobation, we will look briefly into his 
writings for the confirmation, or refutal of this charge. 

" Even so then, at this present time also there is a 
remnant according to the election of grace. 

And if by grace, then is it no more of works ; oth- 
erwise grace is no more grace, But if it be of works, 
then is it no more grace ; otherwise work is no more 
work. 

What then ? Israel hath not obtained that which he 
seeketh for ; but the election hath obtained it, and the 
rest were blinded." 

And what will be the result of the blindness of this 
disobedient and gainsaying people ? Answer. 

" I say then. Have they stumbled that they should 
fall ? God forbid ; but rather through their fall salva- 
tion is comer unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to 
jealousy. 

Now if the fall of them he the riches of the world, 
and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles ; 
how much more their fulness." 

Lest, however, this should be considered a mere 
supposititious proposition, the apostle is careful to 
warn the Romans against the pride of considering 
themselves the specially favoured of God, to the ex- 
clusion of the Jews, in the following definite lan- 
guage ; 

" For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ig- 
norant of this mygtery, lest you should be wise in your 



172 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



own conceit, that blindness in part is happened to Is- 
rael, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in." 

The time of their blindness and consequent rejec- 
tion, was hmited, until the fullness of the Gentiles 
be come in.*" What then will be the consequence ? 

**And so all Israel shall be saved ; as it is written, 
There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall 
turn away ungodliness from Jacob ; 

For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall 
take away their sins. 

As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your 
sakes : but as touching the election, they are beloved 
for the fathers' sakes. 

For the gifts and caUing of God are without repen- 
tance. 

For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet 
have now obtained mercy through their unbelief; 

Even so have these also now not believed, that 
through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. 

For God hath included them all in unbelief, that he 
might have mercy upon all.'' 

In view of this glorious developement of the mys- 
tery, no wonder the apostle breaks out in the follow- 
ing glowing language ; 

" O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and 
knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judg- 
ments, and his ways past finding out ! 

For who hath known the mind of the Lord ? or 
who hath been his counsellor ? 

Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be re- 
compensed unto him again ? 

For of him, and through him, and to him, are all 
things ; to whom be glory forever. Amen." 

The next passage you selected is not in the Bible : 
what you probably intended to quote is in Eccl. 9 : 
10, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with 
thy mighte'^ Why this direction ? the close of the 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 1 73 

verse gives the reason ; ''for thertis no work, nor de- 
vice, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whith^ 
er thou goest." Pray what does this say ahout " no 
repentance in the grave and if it did, to what 
would it amount ? If " the dead know not any thing,'* 
as is said in another place, then sure it is that in the 
grave can be no knowledge nor wisdom, of course no 
enjoyment, and no suffering. Let us then attend to 
the counsel, and serve our generation with faithful- 
ness, that our names may descend to a grateful, be^ 
cause a benefited posterity. The same writer has 
already informed us, that "A good name is better than 
precious ointment, and the day of death, than the 
day of one's birth." If it be true, that dust returns to 
dust, and the spirit to God who gave it, we have no 
cause of fear in laying the body where no knowledge 
or wisdom can reside. The insensate clod, that has 
been warm with life, and often served as the medium 
of enjoyment, must return to the elements whence it 
originated. But it returns without the power of 
thought — it never did think — and it must cease to 
feeh But do you observe any thing in these circum- 
stances, that threatens a state of suffering, either for 
spirit or hoAj ? If so, all may have the same fear — - 
for, as perishte the fool, so perishes the wise man. 

Prov. 1 1 : 7, " When a wicked man dieth, his ex- 
pectation shall perish ; and the hope of unjust men 
perisheth.''' Now what is the expectation of the 
wicked, the unjust man ?: Answer. — He expects to be 
happy in 5m.-— He strives for happiness, as all must ; 
but, he is deceived^ — he takes a wrong course, and it 
ends in disappointment. His expectation perishes, for 
the curse of the LORD is invthe house of the wicked 
— a man cannot go upon hot coals, and not be burned 
— the way of the transgressor is hard — his way is like 
the troubled sea — it casts up mire and dirt^ Is not 
this sufficient to dash his expectations with wormwood 

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174 FRIENDLY LETTER3!. 



and gall ? or does the context justify the manner in 
which you would apply it ? Be careful how you con- 
sign to remediless wo, a fellow-being, made, as you 
are, in the image of God, on a mere implication. 
These texts appear to me to have no hidden meaning, 
and to require no private interpretation. 

Prov. 29 : 1, He, that being often reproved, har- 
deneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that 
without remedy.'' Very true, we have often seen it, 
but what does it say of sinning away the day of grace, 
or of a final doom to interminable wrath ? So far 
from finding this figment, I learn that the destruction 
shall be sudden. Does this threat contain any thing 
more dreadful than the destruction of Sodom and Go- 
morrah? Certainly not. What was their punishment ? 
Jeremiah, speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem, 
^ says ; 

" For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter 
of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin 
of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment^ and no 
hands stayed on her.'' 

Were the Sodomites doomed to interminable mis-^ 
ery, and were the citizens of Jerusalem to endure 
something more severe ? Strange paradox, indeed. 
But what is the comparison, in the two cases ? Sod- 
om was destroyed as in a moment — their destruction 
was sudden — no hands stayed upon her. Jerusalem 
suffered by siege, and famine, and pestilence, and fac- 
tion — and such was the weight of her sufferings, that 
the Saviour declared that such tribulation had never 
been, and should never again occur. We thus see, 
that the prolonged and complicated sufferings of the 
Jews, far exceeded those of Sodom, which was de- 
stroyed as in a moment. And why this difference ? 
Answer. 

As I livcj saith the Lord GOD^ Sodom thy sifter 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 175 



hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast 
done, thou and thy daughters. 

Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, 
pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness, 
was in her and in her daughters, neither did she 
strengthen the hand of the poor and needy." 

You see, my dear Sir, the Sodomites were not ac- 
cused of being Universalists. Their sins are mention- 
ed, and they were rewarded according to their works. 
Their iniquities were less than the iniquities of Jeru- 
salem, and they suffered less ; but it is said, even of 
Jerusalem, her iniquities are pardoned, for she hath 
received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins* 
See again ; 

" Thou also, w^hich hast judged thy sisters, bear 
thine own shame for thy sins that thou hast committed 
more abominable than they they are more righteous 
than thou ; yea, be thou confounded also, and bear 
thy shame, in that thou hast justified thy sisters. 

When I shall bring again their captivity, the captiv- 
ity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of 
Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the 
captivity of thy captives in the midst of them.'' 

Ezekiel does not seem to admit that either Sodom 
or Jerusalem was totally depraved ; for if Sodom and 
Samaria were more righteous than Jerusalem, some 
righteousness, at least, must fall to the share of each. 
But what is said to be the final result of the sudderi, 
and the protracted destruction of these cities ? 

" For thus saith the Lord GOD ; 1 will even deal 
with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the 
oath in breaking the covenant. 

Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with 
thee in the days of thy youth, and 1 will establish unto 
thee an everlasting covenant. 

Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be asham- 
ed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and 



r76 FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



thy younger ; and I will give them unto thee for 
daughters, but not by thy covenant. 

And I will establish my covenant with thee ; and 
thou shalt know that I am the LORD." 

This is life eternal, to know thee the only true 
God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.'' Amen, 
Alleluia. 

In my next, some attention will be paid to the re- 
maining texts from the Old Testament, when, if possi- 
ble, I shall bring them to a close. In the mean time, 
you will do yourself and your friend a favour, by ex- 
amining, as with a lighted candle, every text that has 
yet been investigated. The examination has been 
cursory ; my leisure hours are too few for a more mi- 
nute criticism, at present. I rather aim to what your 
citations do nof^ than what they do mean. Under ex- 
isting circumstances, this is all you can require. 
Should I succeed in this, a great point will be gained 
—you will be prepared, and I trust disposed, to read 
and hear, and think for yourself, free from the shack- 
les that have long bound the world, called christian^ 
in the most degrading, the most abject servitude. 
Yours in friendship, 

JULIUS. 

X.Z1TTEK 3. 

Dear Sir— The passage cited from Ezekiel 18 : 
4, now claims our undivided attention. " The soul 
that sinneth, it shall die." To sin is to miss. To 
transgress is to go across. A^ sin, therefore, is the 
transgression of the law, it is the violation of a com- 
mand, which, in the present instanee,^is the command 
of God. The penalty annexed to this transgression, 
the consequence resulting from it, is death. Here is 



FRIENDLY LETTERS, , 177 



no contingency mentioned, by which the threatening 
may be avoided, nor the least intimation of any person 
©r thing, as a substitute, by means of which the threat- 
ening can be averted. It shall die. If this denun- 
ciation proceed from a faithful Creator, it must be ful- 
filled. In view of these brief premises, let us examine, 
and, if possible, understand the citation already no- 
ticed. 

In Gen. 2 : 17, we read, " in the day thou eatest 
thereof, thou shalt surely die.'' A plain question 
BOW presents itself — Was the threatening fulfilled ? — - 
If not, it is certainly aw^ork of supererogation to hold 
up in terror a penalty which w as never inflicted ; for, 
if it failed in the first instance, by what authority shall 
w^e determine that it has not, and will not, in every 
instance ? Nor^oes an appeal to the New-Testam.ent 
furnish any clue by which we may in any way escape 
that d^ath, which is the consequence of sin. Here we 
learn that God is no respecter of persons — that every 
one shall be rewarded accarding to his works, and 
that the wages of sin is death. Indeed, the very case 
for which you quoted the passage, supposes it peremp- 
tory. What then is its import ? Is it, as theologians 
inform us, a death temporal, spiritual, and eternal ? 
All have sinned — the threat is peremptory — the issue, 
on these premises — eternal death* From which, how- 
ever, as it wants scripture authority, we may yet hope 
to escape. 

Do not think, my dear Sir, that I am desirous of 
avoiding a direct answer to the question. It may be 
necessary to remove some stumbhng blocks which 
are in the path of truth, by considering the negative 
side of the subject. If insuperable obstacles to the 
common understanding of the phrase can be thus re- 
moved, the mind will then be in a situation to learn 
the truth with more composure, and to judge with a 
greater degree of partiality. 



178 



Friendly letters. 



Let us how recur to the different senses in which 
the terms die^ died^ deaths and dead^ are used in the 
sacred writings, by which nnethod, and a careful at- 
tention to the context, we shall probably be able to 
arrive at a thorough understanding of the subject. 

1. The first, and most common understanding of 
these terms, is the dissolution of the union between 
body and spirit; the cessation of animal being, or ex- 
tinction of life. Of this we need nothing in proof 
from the scripture. It is an ^very day concern, about 
which the most superficial reader cannot go amiss.. 

2. Death in sin^ from which the scriptures give us 
instances of a revival, or resurrection in this world. 
By this death may be understood a departure from 
moral righteousness. Of this the scriptures give us a- 
bundant examples, some of which will be quoted. " Let 
the DEAD bury their dead.''— Mat. 8 : 22. No man in 
his senses can suppose that by the term dead in the 
first instance, the naturally dead can be intended. 

The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall 
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear 
shall live.''— John 5 : 25.^ That the spiritually dead 
are here meant is too evident to need an argument. 
" He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet 
shall he live ; and whosoever liveth and believeth in 
me, shall never die [or shall by no means die 
to the age. Imp. version.] And you, being dead 
IN YOUR SINS, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, 
hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven 
you all tresspasses. ''—Col. 2: 13. Here is a case in 
point. The Colossians, to whom the apostle was wri- 
ting, had been dead in sins, and were brought to life 
by the preaching of the gospel, the voice by which 
those who heard should live, see John 5 : 25. See 
also Col. 3:3. " For ye are dead, and your life is 
hid with Christ in God." We know that-we have 
passed from death to life, because we love the breth- 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



179 



ren. He that loveth not his brother, abideth in 
death/'— 1 John 3 : 14. "By one man sin entered 
into the world, and death by sin ; and so death pas- 
sed upon all men, for that all have sinned.^' You 
must see the insuperable difficulty of saving a single 
soul on your own hypothesis, and in this instance, at 
least, must admit, that in this sweeping clause, the 
wages of sin is not eternal death, or that it has passed 
upon all men. " For when we were in the flesh [or 
under the law,] the motions of siijs, which were by 
the law, did work in our members, to bring forth fruit 
unto death.''— Rom. 7 : 5. From this death in sin, 
however, they were delivered. How ? For the law 
of the spirit of hfe in Christ Jesus, hath made me 
free from the law of sin and death.''— Rom. 8 : 2* 
For to be carnally minded is death ; but to be spir- 
itually minded i5 life and peace.'' — 5: 6. ''But 
when the commandment came, sin revived, and I 
died.— 7 : 9. It seems then, that the apostle was not 
an exception to the rule, for he says not only " I am 
carnal, sold under sin,^' but also that sin deceived^ and 
finally slew him. He was then morally dead. Nev- 
ertheless he had a hope full of immortality ; nay, the 
power of language was insufficient to express the con- 
fidence which he cherished, of a bhssful immortality, 
notwithstanding his death in sin. It is most evidently 
of this death in sin that he speaks, 1 Cor. 15 : 21, 22. 
*' For since by man came death, by man came also the 
resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, 
even so in Christ shall all be made alive." That 
moral death, and a moral or spiritual resurrection are 
here intended, is evident from 5 : 56—7. '' The sting 
of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law ; but 
thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through 
our Lord Jesus Christ," James informs us, that " he 
who converteth a sinner from the error of his way, ^ 
shall save a soul from death." 



180 FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



The above examples must be sufficient to illustrate 
my ideas of moral declension, or spiritual death, and 
to satisfy every reflecting man, that a death in sin does 
not imply a hopeless and never-ending separation be- 
tween the soul and its Maker. He who is the Father 
of the spirits of all flesh, has provided the means of 
recovery from the greatest moral pollution. Whether 
he will so use these means as to accompHsh this pur- 
pose, will be seen in the sequel. 

3. Death to sin. By this 1 understand a change of 
heart from sin to holiness. ^'Likewise reckon ye 
also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive 
unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord," — Rom. 6 : 
11. 

Having, as you perceive, dwelt particularly onmor- 
al or spiritual death, my purpose is to show that the 
text is to be so understood. For this purpose I shall 
examine its context, and other corresponding passages 
of the same writer, and others under the old dispen- 
sation. The chapter commences by the inquiry, 
What mean ye that ye use this proverb — The fathers 
have eat^n sour grapes, and the children's teeth are 
set on edge ? After stating on the asseveration of the 
Almighty, that they shall disuse this proverb, it is ad- 
ded, by way of confirmation, Behold, all souls are 
mine ; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the 
son, is mine ; the soul that sinneth it shall die.*" So 
far from intimating that the consequences of sin are 
carried into another state of being, the context affirms 
the contrary fact. The proverb which the Jews were 
forbidden to use, asserts that " the children's teeth are 
set on edge ;" that they were, in the present tense, 
suffering for the sins of their fathers. Opposed to 
this is the word of the Lord, that each shall suffer for 
his own sin. 

That a recovery from the sta^e of rr^oral death is as 
clearly the doctrine of the Old as of the New-Testa- 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



181 



ment, you may easily satisfy yourself by examining the 
whole of this chapter, the sum of which may be gath- 
ered from the following citations ; " Again, when the 
wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that 
he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and 
right, he shall save his soul alive. Because he con- 
sidereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions 
that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall 
not die.'" What is this but an illustration of the 
Christian doctrine — to be carnally minded is death ; 
but to be spiritually minded, is life and peace ? 

Perhaps you may be ready to question, after all, 
whether the restoration to spiritual life and happiness, 
is the ultimate design of God, as regards all his in- 
telligent offspring. Isaiah, prophesying of the gospel 
dispensation, says, He will swallow up death in vic- 
tory ; and the Lord God will wipe away all tears from 
off all faces ; and the rebuke of his people shall he 
take away from off all the earth ; for the Lord Katli 
spoken it." In prospect of this glorious event, an 
apostle quotes the spirit of this prediction as follows ; 
Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is 
thy sting ? O Grave, [hades] where is thy victory ? 
That Paul here alludes to the moral death caused by 
sin, is evident from the succeeding expressions — " The 
sting of death is sin^ and the strength of sin is the law% 
But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, 
through our Lord Jesus Christ." In agreement with 
this is the declaration of the same apostle, Heb. 2 : 14, 
15, — Forasmuch then, as the children are partakers 
of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part 
of the same ; that through death he might destroy him 
that had the power of death, that is, the devil ; and 
deliver them, who, through fear of death, were all 
their Hfetime subject to bondage," That a deliver- 
ance from the fear which is engendered by guilt, is 
deliverance from the very state ia which we are pla- 

16 



182 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



ced by transgression, is evident from the first account 
we have of its effects. ^' And he [Adam] said, I 
heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid. 
Guilt is the parent of fear, and fear hath torment. 
Perfect love, which is manifested by a spiritual life, 
casteth out fear ; and if our hearts condemn us not, 
then have we confidence towards God. 

I think you must see that as certainly as death has 
passed on all men^ so the deliverance is equally uni- 
versal ; and that as in Adam all die^ even so in Christ 
shall all be made alive. To say, as some have, that 
this merely alludes to a resurrection of the body, is a 
subterfuge which not only exposes the weakness of the 
system that requires the evasion, but it is done with- 
out the least prospect of benefit. For, admitting the 
validity of the assertion, those who make it have still 
to show how those who are raised incorruptible, glo- 
rious and immortal, even as the angels of heaven, are 
still to continue the subjects of sin and sorrow, the at- 
tendants on a corrupt and natural state. In view of 
all that has been offered, though but an imperfect 
sketch of the testimony which the scriptures furnish, 
permit me to impress on yoiir conscience the impor- 
tance of weighing duly the evidence already adduced, 
and of satisfying yourself that every passage quoted 
by me can be otherwise rationally solved. If you are 
true to your own soul, I hesitate not to say what will 
be your choice. But whatever it may be, do not for- 
get THERE SHALL BE NO MORE DEATH. 

Yours in friendship, 

JULIUS. 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



183 



X.ETTER 4. 

Dear Sir, — I now proceed to notice the last mate- 
rial passage which you have adduced from the Old 
Testament. And many of them that sleep in the 
dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, 
and some to shame and everlasting contempt.'' Dan* 
12:2. On this T remark, briefly, 

1. Everlasting lift occurs but this once in the Old 
Testament. 

2. The whole book relates to the rise and decline 
of nations — to the return of the Jews, the rebuilding 
and destruction of Jerusalem, the close of the Mosaic, 
and the succession of the gospel dispensation, under 
the Messiah. 

3. The prophet does not, in one instance^ allude to 
a future, immortal state of existence. 

4. The connexion in which it is found renders it 
certain that the common understanding of this verse is 
erroneous. 

5. The phrase eternal life^ or everlasting life^ is no 
where used, even in the New Testament, to express 
an immortal state of being.*" 

To a person of }'our understanding I need not urge 
that a proof of either of the four latter propositions is 
sufficient to nullify the force of this citation, as appli- 
ed to the doctrines of men, or in other words, to the 
tenet of endless misery. As you rightly consider this 
the strongest text in the Old Testament, in proof of the 
system which you purpose to vindicate, if my powers 
should be tasked in its illustration, I ask in return for 
my labour, your serious, and therefore candid atten-' 
tion. 

* If this position be incorrect, the writer is ready to be convinced 
of the fact, and will return thanks to the person who will set him 
right. 



184 FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



If the first proposition be correct, which will not 
be contested, the labour of examining' the whole book 
will satisfy you that the substance of the second prop- 
osition is not mere matter of speculation ; at least with 
the exception of the text already quoted. ^Having 
carefully perused the book for the purpose of deter- 
mining this fact, I speak with confidence. The con- 
clusion then, is, that the third proposition is tenable, 
and therefore, that the point which you would main- 
tain, finds no support from this passage. Perhaps you 
will term this a gratuitous assumption ; be it so; you 
will not, however, claim that the whole book shall be 
quoted to prove a negative. An illustration of the 
disputed text can be furnished in a more summary 
way. 

I shall now attempt to show by the context, the time 
in which the circumstances noticed are to transpire. 
The chapter commences thus ; 

"And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great 
prince which standeth for the children of thy people ; 
and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was 
since there was a nation even to that same time ; and 
at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one 
that shall be found written in the book." 

To what time^ let us now inquire, does the prophet 
here allude ? The answer is furnished in the 11th, 
the subject of which is broken by the arbitrary divis- 
ion of the chapters. Whoever will take the labour 
of reading to the close of the fourth verse, will be sat- 
isfied that the phraseology recognizes this connexion. 
an(J that any other understanding of the passage, than 
that gathered from the close of the previous chapter, 
does violence to the sense, and isolates a passage for a 
partial purpose, to the destruction of consistency, and 
in the face of just and candid criticism. The time, 
then, is when the " King of the north, v. 40, 45, shall 
plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas 



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in the glorious holy mountain." By the holy moun- 
tain we are to understand Mount Moriah, on which the 
temple stood, as is evident hy ch. 9 : 20, and the 
whole connexion shows that the destruction of Jeru- 
salem was the epoch to which the prophecy alluded. 
This is now to he manifested hy liberal quotations, 
from the chapter last mentioned. 

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people 
and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and 
to make the end of sins, and to make reconciliation 
for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, 
and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anbint 
the Most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that 
from the going forth of the commandment to restore 
and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince 
shall he seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks ; 
- the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in 
troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks 
shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself; and the 
people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the 
city and the sanctuary ; and the end thereof shall be 
with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations 
are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant 
with many for one week ; and in the midst of the 
week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to 
cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he 
shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, 
and that determined shall be poured upon the deso^* 
late.'' 

See also in the 1 1th chapter— ''And they shall pol- 
lute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away 
the daily sacrifice^ and they shall place the abomina- 
tion that maketh desolate." I now ask) what could 
be a greater abomination to the Jews, than to see their 
temple in ruins, and pagans^ whom they considered 
as dogs^ in possession of their city ? But we are in- 
formed nearer to the text, that these shall escape 

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out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief 
of the children of Ammon." Where now are the 
Edomites, the Moabites, and the Ammonites 1 — Do 
they exist as tribes or nations ? But in ch. 12 : 7, 
we learn the time when all these predictions shall 
come to a close. 

And I heard the man clothed in linen, which zvas 
upon the waters of the river, when he held up his 
right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware 
by him that liveth forever, that it shall be for a time, 
limes, and an half ; and when he shall have accom- 
plished to scatter the power of the holy people, all 
these things shall be finished.'" 

To corroborate this understanding of the text, and 
to bring the testimony to a point, let us extract a few 
passages from the words of Christ, as recorded by 
Matthew, chaps. 23, 24, 25. After stating the man- 
ner in which the Jews would treat his messengers, and 
the dreadful inquest for blood which would follow, he 
adds, "Verily I say unto you, all these things shall 
€om^ upon this generation.'''^ What things should hap- 
pen to that generation ? Answer. Those things 
which formed the burden of that portion of Daniel's 
prophecy to which we have just alluded. Their 
house was to be left desolate^ the very catastrophe to 
which the prophecy points. There shall not be left 
here one stone upon another, that shall i\ot be thrown 
down." Do you ask how this is the accomplishment 
of the prediction ? — When ye therefore shall see the 
abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the 
prophet^ stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth let 
him UNDERSTAND, then let them who are in Judea flee 
into the mountains.'' Why should they flee, and why 
did the believers in Christ flee to Pella ? Answer, 
they believed him when he declared- — " there shall be 
great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning 
of the world to this time,'' which is an evident quota- 



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187 



tion from Dan. 12: 1, already recited. Added to 
this is a confirmatioa strong as testimony can make it, 
for Christ adds, '^no, nor ever shall be.'*' So far is 
the evidence conclusive, not only in reference to the 
prophecy of Daniel, as not extending beyond the 
epoch to which the Saviour aUuded, but he repeats 
the declaration with peculiav emphasis — Verily I 
say unto you, This generation shall not pass till all 
these things be fiilfilled." 

That these dreadful calamities came upon the Jews 
in the generation in which Christ lived and was cru- 
cified, is evident from the well authenticated history 
of Josephus, who says — 

" If all the misfortunes of all nations from the be- 
ginning of the world were compared with those which 
befel the Jews, they would appear much less in com- 
parison. The destruction of this people, exceeded all 
the destructions God or man ever brought on the 
world.''' He calculates 1,100,000 were destroyed in 
the siege, 237,000 who perished in other places, be- 
sides innumerable multitudes swept away by famine 
and pestilence, of which no calculation could be 
made. Above 2,000 laid violent hands on themselves. 
Ninety-seven thousand were sold slaves. Eleven 
thousand were starved to death under one leader. A 
lady of rank was seen to murder and eat her ovv^i 
child. Manneus, a Jew, who fled to Titus, affirmed 
that from the beginning of the siege on the 1 4th of 
April, to the 1st of July, 115,880 dead bodies had 
been carried out through one gate, of which the keep- 
ing had been committed to him. Many respectable 
deserters assured Titus that not less than 600,000 
poor, had been cast out at the different gates ; and 
while he beheld the dead piled under the walls, rais- 
ed his hands to heaven, and protested he had not been 
the cause of this deplorable calamity. Moreover, 
the Jews who had been vanquished by tlie army of Ves- 



18S FRIENDLY LETTERS. 

pasian, having fled to their ships, were pursued by a 
horrible tempest, which dashed their vessels against 
each other, and against the rocks, so that the raging: 
billows were literally stained with blood, and 4,205 
dead bodies were strewed along the shore/' 

We have now seen that the time to which Daniel 
alluded, was the destruction of Jerusalem — that this 
happened in the year Y€L^of the Christian era, as at- 
tested by Josephus, and th^t the quotation from the 
prophet, made and applied by the Messiah to the 
generation which then existed, was fulfilled. Either, 
then, the prophecy of Daniel had already been ful- 
filled, which will not be contended, or it was fulfilled by 
the destruction of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the 
Jewish nation. If we say that it still waits forils accom- 
plishment, we make void the words of him who de- 
clared that such a time of trouble should never be re- 
peated, and thus render scripture a mere nehushtan. 

I will now advert to the last verse of the 25th 
chapter, or the substance of the text with which we 
commenced. What the prophet terms awaking to 
everlasting life, is here termed life eternal, and the 
import is most obviously the same. If sufficient have 
been said to identify the prophecies of Daniel and 
Christ, the catastrophe is one. The time is beyond 
controversy the same, and the everlasting punishment 
of one passage, is most manifestly, the shame and ev- 
erlasting contempt of the other. Daniel says, or 
writes as directed, when he shall have accomplish- 
ed to scatter the power of the holy people, [the Jews 
most certainly] all these things shall be finished.'' 
How then do professed christians carry all these 
events into the coming world, in the face of this testi- 
mony ? Christ but repeated, in clearer language, the 
prediction of the prophet, who never intimated, by a 
single expression, even a future state of immortal ex- 
istence. But you may observe, that not in a single 



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189 



instance, does either Daniel or Christ, speak of this 
event as affecting any but the Jews, or Daniel's peo- 
ple. And it is also observable, that a repetition of the 
prophecy could not contain any thing not found in its 
first promulgation. It may be plainer expressed, but 
addition of facts would not constitute a repetition, but 
a new prophecy. That the Jews, either in the pro- 
phetic or apostolic age, understood any thing more by 
the term everlasting punishment, than a tem.poral ca- 
lamity, cannot be shown, either by sacred or profane 
history ; and that hfe eternal is any where used by 
New Testament writers, for a state of felicity beyond 
the grave, is easier said than proved. Until the proof 
is adduced, the testimony of Christ may satisfy us, 
that this is life eternal, to know thee the only true 
God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent," Eter- 
nal life is enjoyed in this world, as is evident by vari- 
ous testimonies. Not only do we read, " He that be- 
lieveth on the Son hath everlasting life, but an apos- 
tle directs to lay hold on eterr.al life,'' as a thing 
within our reach, even here. But the point is 
strengthened by the statement, that ''no murderer 
hath eternal hfe abiding in him." Now if eternal 
life were not enjoyed by some, the expression in re- 
gard to a murderer would be perfectly senseless, and 
utterly unintelhgible. 

I shall now attempt to remove some objections 
which arise from the question of the disciples, and the 
reply of our Lord. They ask, When shall these 
things be ? and w^hat shall be the sign of thy comings 
and of the end of the world ? Here let us remark, 
that no one word had dropped from their master rela- 
tive to the consummation of all things, or a dissolution 
of this globe. He had stated that the temple should 
be utterly destroyed, and the city laid waste. These 
circumstances would scatter the inhabitants, and close 
the Mosaic dispensation. Nothing could impress a 



190 FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



Jew more strongly than this. They, as a nation, had 
already been carried captive, and the horrors of cap- 
tivity, in those days, and that to pagan nations, may 
not easily be conceived by those who have not seen 
the catastrophe staring them in the face. But it re- 
quires no extraordinary efibrts of imagination to pic- 
ture the disciples as anxiously intent on so dreadful a 
circumstance. — Their anxiety is evidenced by the 
questions grov/ing out of our Lord's declaration rela- 
tive to the end of the age or dispensation, which he 
pronounced as coming to a close. Is it then, using 
the canon of scripture reveientiy, to wrest the lan- 
guage of the disciples to a purpose utterly foreign, both 
to the preceding and succeeding context ? That the 
signs of his coming, and the end of the aion, (age, not 
w^orld,) were one, is evident by his ansv/er. Among 
other tokens, he states that the gospel shall be preach- 
ed in all the world for a witness to all nations, and then 
shall the end come. Concerning this prediction, Mr, 
Thompson, in his lectures on 2 Thes. 1 : 6, 10, has 
the following remarks, on such authority as you will 
not readily dispute. 

" Of the fulfilment of this prediction, the epistles of 
Paul, addressed to the chistians of Rome, Corinth, 
Ephesus, Philippi, and Thessalonica ; and those of 
Peter, to those in Pontus, Cappadocia, and Bythinia, 
are standing monuments. Paul tells the Romans their 
faith was spoken of throughout the word ; and the 
Colossians, that the gospel had been preached to eve- 
ry creature under heaven. The Acts of the Apostles, 
written seven years before the destruction of Jerusa- 
lem, attests the fact, that the gospel had been preach- 
ed to all the then known world. Bishop Newton ob- 
serves, that the history of the church shows, that be- 
fore the destruction of Jerusalem, the gospel had been 
propagated northward to Scythia, southward to Ethi- 
opia, eastward to India, and westward to Spain and 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 191 



Britain. Moreover, both Eusebius and Theodoret 
attest, that the apostles preached the gospel in the 
Britannic isles. Doddridge, in his note on the pas- 
sage says, it appears from the most credible records, 
that the gospel was preached in Mesopotamia, Idu- 
mea, and Syria, by Jade ; in Egypt, Mauritania, and 
tether parts of Africa, by Mark, Simon, and Jude ; in 
Ethiopia, by Matthias and Candace's Eunuch; in 
Pontus, Galatia, and other parts of Asia, by Peter ; in 
the territories of the seven Asiatic churches, by John ; 
in Parthia, by Matthew ; in Scythia, by Philip and 
Andrew ; in the northern and western parts of Asia, 
by Bartholomew ; in Persia, by Simon and Jude ; in 
Media, Carmania, and other parts of the east, by 
Thomas; from Jerusalem, round the vast tract, to 
lUyricum, by Paul ; in Spain, Gaul, and Britain, in 
all probability, by the apostles ; and in all which 
places churches had been planted within thirty years 
after the death of Christ, and ten before the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem.'' 

Thus, then, is the objection to this understanding 
of the subject, supposed to be contained in the decla- 
ration relative to the previous preaching of the gos- 
pel, entirely removed. 

I believe it is by this time evident, that the catas- 
trophe to which Daniel alludes, is already past. At 
the time to which I think it is fairly maintained the 
prophecy points, Christ said, " The time is coming, 
and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the 
Son of God, and they that hear shall live." That 
this is a highly figurative declaration will not be dis- 
puted, and those who read Daniel's prophecy with 
attention, will not be willing to allow that his lan- 
guage is to be hterally understood. What then is the 
conclusion? That the figurative representation of 
Daniel is to be understood literally, w^hile the time is 
as certainly past, as Jerusalem has been destroyed ? 



192 



FRIENDLY LETTERS 



. No, let us reject a system which requires such perver- 
sion of language, and so palpable a libel on common 
sense. 

Had I leisure and room, the subject would be more 
fully illustrated by a variety of connecting circum- 
stances, and a plenary view of the figurative use of 
language. Having however, substantially proved, as 
I think, that the subject of the prophecy is already 
fulfilled, I forbear. Wishing that we may grow in 
grace, and in the knowledge of those scriptures which 
are able to make us wise to salvation, I remain, yours 
truly, JULIUS. 



I.ETTER 5. 

Dear Sir^ — I am now to commence with your quo- 
tations from the New Testament, the first of which is 
found in Matt. 5 : 22. " But I say unto you, That 
whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, 
shall be in danger of the judgment ; and whosoever 
shall say to his brother, Raca, [thou vile person] 
shall be in danger of the council ; but whosoever shall 
say, Thou fool, [or apostate wretch] shall be in dan- 
ger of hell fire ; [or, liable to the burning of Gehen- 
na.] 

On this I remark, first, that if your opinion of this 
text be correct, the immense difference between the 
enumerated offences, and their punishment, have no 
possible proportion. That for the expression of an- 
ger, and Galling a brother a vile person, one might be 
subjected to a judicial sentence from the tribunals of 
the Jews, constituted for the cognizance of such of- 
fences, seems perfectly reasonable ; but will any in- 
dividual of a sound mind, contend that the difference 
between calling one a vile persoi^ and a fool, or 



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193 



apostate wretch, is such as to subject him who uses 
the latter term to a punishment infinitely greater, and 
of course, of infinite duration ? Or, can you possibly 
conceive that this is rendering to every man according 
to his works ? This would be virtually to make an 
infinite difference between the crimes of finite beings 
— a proposition too palpably absurd to gain admit- 
tance into a well disciplined mind* On reflection^ 
you must be aware, that this is not apportioning the 
punishment to the crime with the least degree of ra« 
tionality. 

But your view of the subject is no less at variance 
with scripture, than with the deductions of a discrimi- 
nating mind. The Lord, speaking by the prophet, 
bids men to come and reason with him, declaring, 
that though their sins be as scarlet, they shall be as 
snow. You will not surely contend that the applica- 
tion of the term fool, or apostate wretch, is out of the 
pale of mercy, and therefore beyond the degree of 
crime contemplated by the prophet. Your own mind, 
I think, will suggest the propriety of examining care- 
fully the records of truth, which so frequently and 
strongly testify the love of God to sinners, and their 
consequent redemption from the power of sin, 
before you draw a conclusion which must utterly de- 
stroy the consistency of the scriptures* 

In the second place, the argument which you de- 
duce from the text, proves too much, and is therefore 
its own destroyer. It involves consequences which 
you did not foresee. If the true meaning of the text 
be what you intimate, audit extend into the Chris« 
tian dispensation, Paul is most certainly convicted. 
He says, 1 Cor. 15. 36. " Thou fool, that which thou 
sowest is not quickened, except it die.'' The same 
language is repeatedly used by Christ, who is often 
and emphatically styled our brother. Are you wil* 

17 



m FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



ling to view the subject as formerly, and let the evi- 
dent conclusion follow ? 

In my apprehension, Christ nmost clearly adverted 
to the custonnis of the Jews, to whom he then spoke, 
and pointed to ordinances which were perfectly un« 
derstood in that nation. The question then is, not 
what those called christians understand by the words, 
but, What did the Jews^ to whom the words were ad- 
dressed, understand by the language In what 
sense they understood it will now be se€n. 

Dr. Campbell, and other Biblical scholars, allow 
that by a Gehenna of fire, translated hell fire, was 
understood the valley of Hinnom, or Tophet, a pol- 
luted and well known place near Jerusalem. Mr. 
Parkhurst, whose authority, in this case, you will 
hardly question, says- — " Hence in the New Testa- 
ment, rssvva Tou 'Jtv^g a Gehenna of fire, Mat. 5. 22, 
(the very verse in point) I apprehend, in its outward 
and primary sense, relates to that dreadful doom of 
being burnt alive in the valley of Hinnom.'''^ If this is 
its outward and primary sense, it is that which the 
Jews most unquestionably understood, and being a 
matter of public notoriety, and one about which no 
Jew could well mistake, the conclusion is obvious and 
irresistible, that to them this was its only meaning. 
This was the sense in which it was uniformly used in 
their scriptures, and, far as I am yet acquainted, the 
most diligent and inquisitive scholars, have not been 
able to learn that any other sense was ever attached to 
the phrase by the Jewish nation, The other sense 
of the word which we find in the New Testament, is 
in James : 36, where, by ametononomy,it is applied to 
the wickedness of the tongue." 

In view of this brief, but conclusive testimony, and 
of the consequences which must inevitably flow from 
your impressions, need I ask you to reflect seriously 
on the subject, and to ask yourself, if the Israelites 



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195 



CQiild be expected to understand the language as in- 
tended to teach a tenet to which they were strangers, 
or whether the Saviour, on so important a subject, 
used language to which he appended a private inter- 
preiation ? 

Mat. 5 : 25, requires but few words. The subject 
matter relates to our conduct each with the other. 
Man is frequently and truly represented as the enemy 
of man. God our Father, is represented as the friend 
of sinners, the never dying, and unchangeable bene- 
factor of man. In the two preceding verses, direc- 
tions are given to heal the breaches between brethren 
before coming to God in worship. We are justified 
by scripture in saying, that no man can worship God 
acceptably, who bears hatred to a brother. From 
love alone can spring that devotion to God, which is 
manifested by those acts of kindness, that are utterly 
repugnant to, and inconsistent with, a spirit of malev- 
olence. " He that hateth his brother is a murder- 
er.'^ 

But to close the remarks on this subject with all 
convenient brevity, let us inquire, whether retaining 
one in prison uyitil the last farthing is paid, is not most 
evidently clearing the individual, finally, from his 
" durance vile This appears too plain to require 
further consideration. 

I cannot, however, resist a remark in this place to 
which you must be impelled to assent. The same 
chapter refutes most clearly, the inferences frequently 
drawn from the passages quoted, and some others. 
" Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an 
eye, and a tooth for a tooth." This lex talionis is the 
very principle of the adversary^ v. 25. But what 
says Christ on this subject? But I say unto you, that 
ye resist not evil.'' He directs to suffer wrong, ra- 
ther than to do wrong ; to give and to lend ; > to love 
and to bless enemies ; and assures, that whoever thus 



196 FRIENDLY LETTERS. 

does, is characteristically a child of his heavenly Fa- 
ther, who makes his sun to shine on the evil and un- 
thankful, and fertilizes the fields of the unjust by the 
rain from heaven. Is not this, in the most pointed 
manner, condemning the conduct of the adversary ? 
True indeed, he admonishes to agree with the adver- 
sary, and why ? plainly, that the evil may be avoided, 
and no occasion jfound which can in the least justify 
this unfeeling conduct. 

On verses 29,30, I would siniply remark, that as 
the word hell in both is Tsswa Gehenna in the origi- 
nal, and as no individual who values his reputation ei- 
ther for scholarship or veracity, will deny that the 
definition repeatedly given of this term is correct, the 
same result will follow its examination. Not a soli- 
tary instance can be given, where Christ or his apoo- 
ties understood or used this term in any other sense 
than that in which it is used in the Jewish scriptures, 
save the exception already mentioned, which no man 
who is considered sane, would urge for a moment. 
With these remarks, I shall now conclude this num- 
ber, praying that light may yet shine out of darknessi 
and that the writings which have hitherto been es- 
teemed as a sealed book, which may be a lamp to our 
feet, and a light to our path. 

Yours in the Gospel^ 

JULIUS. 

1.BTTSR6. 

Dear Sir — I pause in the course which I purposed 
to pursue, that the remarks in your last epistle may 
receive the most prompt attention. You object — not 
to any sins of ci^mmission found in my first Letter, but 
to errors of omission ; and have dwelt with so much 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



197 



pathos on the use of water baptism, that one might 
judge by your earnestness, that immersion in water is 
not only a pre-requisite to Christian communion, but 
an absolute sine. qua non in the article of salvation. 
To the substance of your statements and authorities 
I shall now give all due attention. I shall, however, 
introduce the investigation by some preliminary obser- 
vations, which, though not coming directly into the 
argument at issue between us, may nevertheless be 
pertinent in this place, and claim some share of our 
attention. 

In the first place, admitting water baptism to be as 
important as you esteem it, what is the mode, who 
shall perform it, and on whom shall it be conferred ? 
Is it merely an initiating ceremony into a church of 
believers, or has it power to purify the soul from the 
pollution of sin, as it cleanses the body from outward 
defilement ? Or, secondly, is a repetition necessary to 
its ultimate purpose, or is trine immersion, as ha^s 
been largely practised, important to its validity ? Or^ 
thirdly, are those who are submitted, or who submit 
themselves to this rite, thereby regenerated, as is main- 
tained by Catholics and Episcopalians ^ Or, fourthly, 
does it, as was formerly held in defence of infant bap- 
tism, cleanse from the/a//, so called, or the taint of 
original and inbred depravity ? 1 ask these questions, 
not because I am ignorant of your views on the sub-* 
ject, but to hint at a few of the strange notions which 
have been attached to this rite by co-existing sects 
and nations, as well as by those who have been separa- 
ted by ages, and whose views have necessarily varied 
through the force of circumstances, and the great 
disparity in their respective means of information. 
To your better judgment I now leave these queries, 
with the single reflection, that the prevalence of a 
sentiment has no more necessary connexion with its 
truth, than have the. clashing decisions of Popes and 
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198 FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



Ecclesiastical Councils. But to leave this digres- 
sion — 

We agree in the statement, not only that Jesus 
Christ was immersed in water, but that his immediate 
disciples practised the rite on others. I am well per- 
suaded, however, that your powers would be tasked to 
their extent, in proving your assertion, that water bap- 
tism was administered to all his disciples — that it was 
a necessary pre-requisite to communion— or that in 
any instance before his crucifixion, or in the grand 
and final commission to his disciples, Christ gave them 
authority for this purpose. 

Having conceded the point as to the practice of 
Jesus and his immediate followers, you may wish to 
learn on what ground I now deny the validity of this 
rite as a positive institution in the Christian church. 
My reasons are at your service, and shall be given 
with as much method and plainness as my limited time 
will permit. 

1. We find no direction from our Master of this im- 
port. The commission given to his disciples, Matt. 
10 : does not contain a syllable on this topic, as has 
lately been conceded by a Baptist publication in this 
city. The omission is the more remarkable, as they 
were directed to preach as did the forerunner of Mes- 
#ah. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Nor have 
We any evidence, nor even intimation, that Jesus bap- 
tized with water, nor thus commanded his disciples ; 
while we have plenary testimony that he did not do 
either. Should you object, that nevertheless, the dis- 
ciples did thus practise, the objection can have but 
little weight with any, and ought to have none, with 
those who so strongly contend for immersion in water 
^s a positive ordinance. That Jesus subinitted to 
the rite, is no more proof that the practice was to be 
perpetuated in his church, than that the ceremony of 
circunacisipn, t9 which he also submitted, was to coi^r- 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 199 



tinue as a symbol in the gospel dispensation. I am 
sustained by apostolic authority in asserting, that wa- 
ter baptism has no pre-eminence over circumcision, 
excepting that it is a brighter figure, as being nearer 
the opening of the gospel dispensation, to which both 
had reference. To justify what has been said on this 
point, read the testimony of Paul, Gal. 5: 2, where 
he says, that those who are circumcised shall profit 
nothing by Christ : and yet the same apostle circum- 
cised Timothy on account of the prejudice of the 
Jews. In 1 Cor, 1 : 14 — 16 the same apostle enu- 
merates the few whom he had baptized, thanking God 
that he had baptized no more, for which he gives the 
following conclusive reason ; " For Christ sent me 
not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.'' I inquire 
now, with considerable confidence — If baptism by wa- 
ter were an important seal of admission into the 
brotherhood of Christians, and the apostle obtained 
his knowledge of the gospel dispensation by the rev- 
elation of Jesus Christ," — why was this important 
and positive institution entirely omitted, or utterly 
disregarded ? — But our surprise increases, when we 
reflect on the immense field in which this faithful and 
fearless champion of the cross laboured, and the ex- 
traordinary success of his ministry. 

We have seen that this apostle practised both cir- 
cumcision and immersion in water, and that he disap- 
proves both as being entirely beyond his commissioUe 
Can any man be led to conclude that this undaunted 
defender of a crucified Master would shun to declare 
or to perform a known duty ? Let the stripes, impris- 
onments, and the appalling catalogue of calamities 
which he suflTered even to crucifixion, testify. 

2. The baptism of John in water was a lively type 
and the immediate precursor of Christ's baptism in 
the Spirit, but a very different baptism, as shall be 
presently manifested. You have indeed assumed as 



200 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



fact that these two form but one baptism; on what 
authority, let the scriptures determine. Water bap- 
tism was still considered as belonging to John's par- 
ticular dispensation, and called by his name, even 
when the apostlies used it. That this was the fact, 
even after the introduction of Christ's baptism, is evi- 
dent by Acts 10 : 24, 25. where, speaking of Apol- 
!os, it is said, that he taught dihgently the things of the 
Lord, knowing only the baptism of John, Now if the 
baptism of John and that of Chrrist were one, why 
call it after the name of the servant, rather than that 
of the Master ? Do you not perceive a force in the 
conclusion which is very diflicult to obviate? Bat the 
language of the text intimates another and a better 
baptism, and this intimation is made certain by the 
context. Inch. 19 : 2. Paul, having certain disci- 
ples, said to them, " Have ye received the Holy Spir- 
it since ye beheved ? And they said unto him, We 
have not so much as heard whether there be any Ho- 
ly Spirit. 3. And he &aid unto them, Unto what then 
were ye baptized ? And they said, Unto John's bap- 
tism. 4. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with 
the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, 
that they should believe in him which was to come 
after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. 5. When they 
heard they were baptized in the name of the 
Lord Jesus. ''"^ The inquiry is now pertinent — Did 
Paul re baptize these, (about twelve in number) with 
tvater ? or did he baptize into the name^ or power^ or 
doctrine^ of Jesus Christ ? In short, was it an outward 

The blunders of the translators in this quotation are so palpa- 
ble as to be discovered by a very slight investigation. No one 
will dispute that the use of that uncouth, and now obsolete word, 
unto^ twice used in the 3d verse, is the same as that of in, employ- 
ed in the 5th verse. All may not know, however, that the same 
Greek word is used in each instance, which is an obvious fact, and 
that its true sense is not given in either instance. See a subsequent 
Bote on the word for further light on thia subject* 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 20i 



ceremony, an immersion of the body in literal water^ 
or was it the baptism of the Spirit, an inward unction 
of the Holy One ? If it were the former, why repeat 
the ceremony ? If the latter, why should we still 
cleave to the letter^ which cannot profit, rather than 
to the Spirit which giveth life ? If necessity existed 
for another water baptism to succeed that of John, 
how many repetitions of the ceremony are necessaiy 
to constitute one baptism of which Paul speaks, Eph, 
4: 5. and which no person of sound mind will deny 
to be the baptism of the gospel dispensation t 

I come now more directly to the proof of this po- 
sition by a recurrence to the language of scripture- 
And let us first listen to the testimony of John, re- 
corded in Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3, and John 1. 

" I indeed baptize you with water unto repen* 
tance ; but he that cometh after me is mightier than 
I, whose shoes I am unworthy to bear ; he shall bap- 
tize you with the Holy Ghost, [Spirit] and with 
FIRE.''— I indeed have baptized you with water; 
but he [Jesus] shall baptize you with the Holy 
Ghost.''' — I indeed baptize with water — he [alluding 
to Christ] shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and 
with fire.'' — And they asked him, and said unto him, 
Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, 
nor Elias, neither that prophet ? John answered them, 
saying, I baptize with water : but there standeth one 
among you, whom ye know not. — And I knew him 
not ; but that he should be made manifest to Israel, 
therefore am I come baptizing with water. And John 
bare record^ saying, I saw the Spirit descending from 
heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I 
knew him ; but he that sent me to baptize with water, 
the same said unto me. Upon whom thou shalt see 
the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same 
is he which baptizeth with the Holy Spirit." 



202 FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



I have quoted thus largely from the scriptures, thst 
we may understand clearly the views of John as to 
liis dispensation of water baptism, which he is care- 
ful to distinguish from that of Christ, which he de- 
nominates the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It is evi- 
dent that the object of his mission was to point out 
Christ as the promised Messiah, the Shilohjthe Lamb 
of God who taketh away the sin of the world. That 
this was so considered by him, and that his dispensa- 
tion was the close of the economy of shadows is ob- 
vious from his own confession— He must increase, bu4: 
I must decrease. But the words of Christ relative to 
John and his mission are direct proof that Johi^s mis- 
sion was only pointing to the gospel dispensation^ not 
IN it, ^' For I say unto you, Among those that are 
born of women there is not a greater prophet than 
John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom 
of God, is greater than he." To the same point was 
the preaching of John — The kingdom of heaven is at 
hand. Should you object that the same is given in 
commission to our Lord's disciples. Matt. 10, the re- 
ply shall be given in the words of scripture. John 7, 
^'He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, 
out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But 
this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe oa 
him should receive : for the Holy Ghost was not yet 
given : because that Jesus was not yet glorified."— 
Hence, no follower of Christ, or believer on him, 
could properly be considered as then in the kingdom 
of God, or gospel dispensation. 

3. I shall endeavour to show in the third place, that 
the passages which you have cited in maintenance of 
the tenet, that immersion in water is Christian bap- 
tism, fall utterly short of your design. The first in 
order is Matthew 28 : 19. Go ye therefore, and 
teach all nations^ baptizing. them in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



203 



Should the translation, in, from the Greek word, 
Eis^ be admitted as correet, I see no reason for con- 
ceding, that baptizing in the name, &c. authorizes any 
one to reduce these words into a mere form by calling 
them over the recipient of water immersion. I think 
not a vestige of testimony can be exhibited, either 
that this was the intention of the speaker, or scripture 
usage. When John the Baptist, speaking of Christ, 
says. He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, is 
the most remote hint given, of his own, or water bap- 
tism ? Certainly not : nor does it any way intimatej 
that to baptize with the Spirit, is to call the name over 
those who were immersed in water. You perceive 
that I object in a previous note, to the translation un- 
to and zn, as neither consistent each with the other,, 
nor with the rendering in other places, where the 
same Greek word is rendered into. In the Greek 
of Greisbach, the question and answer, Acts 19 : 3, 
stand thus : Hig riovy s Qair^iG^xTc Into what were ye bap- 
tized lEis TO lojavvaBaitTid^a^ into John's Baptism. And, 
<5 : 5, it is said, they were baptized sig to ovofjLa into the 
imme, &LC. But to show, that the translators strove 
to put a false construction on these passages, relating 
to what they considered as a formulary^ it may be 
sufficient to quote one or two of many passages, where 
they do thus render it, without any assignable reason 
for the variation, aside from their own prejudices, or 
the beck of a bigoted king, in the one case, and their 
regard to propriety in the other. 1 Cor, 1 : 12, con- 
tains the word twice, and is rendered into in ^ach. 

The baptism of the Ethiopian is frequently quoted 
as indubitable proof that immersion was the bs^ptism 
used by Philip in fact, and that the terms thus used 
make this certain. True, but the term into the water ^ 
receives its whole force from jEzV, the very word un- 
der consideration. Now, render this unto^ €nd where 
is your strength ? But is the form on which you 



204 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



place so much reliance found in the mouthof Philip ? 
Certainly not. That design is manifested in the 
translators, is evident from the fact, that in nearly, if 
not all the places where the term baptize can be tor- 
tured so as to lead one to suppose that water baptism 
is intended, though the baptism is most evidently 
spiritual, the word is rendered in or unto^ but in other 
places, the word is correctly rendered. 

But now that 1 am on the subject, permit me just to 
remark, that much has been said by Baptists, relative 
to the word Baptizo^ which they state, on good au- 
thority, as not being translated, but nSerely receiving 
an English termination* They correctly impute this 
to the rule laid down for the translators by king 
James. In proving that baptism is immersion, they 
allege its use in places unconnected with baptism in 
water, as Christ ^s be ng baptized^ or immersed^ or over" 
whelmed^ in sufferings. Let their own acknowledg- 
ment prove to them, that the term baptize, has no 
more necessary connexion with water, than with Jire^ 
or the Spirit^ or sufferings, all of which are thus con- 
nected with the scripture nse of the word. It is in- 
indeed hoped, that their prejudices may in future be 
so far tempered by modesty, as to prevent them from 
representing Christian baptism^ which is that of the 
Spirit, as one with, or a part of John\s baptism, which 
was administered several years prior to the day of 
Pentecost. 

Direct Appeal. — He shall save his people from their 
sins. How ? By his mercy he saved us, by the wash- 
ing of regeneration, and^tenewing of the Holy Spirit, 
which he shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ 
our Lord. Who hath saved us, and called us — Bap- 
,tism doth now save us— the answer of a good con- 
science, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He that 
beheveth and is baptized, shall be saved. He that 
believeth on the Son/ hath eternal life. Is John's 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 205 



baptism the washing of regeneration — does or can it 
save from sin — or cleanse the conscience— or give 
one spiritual blessing? No. Was John a recipient of 
christian baptism ? No. Was he in the kingdom of 
Christ, or gospel dispensation ? No. Does immer- 
sion in water then in any manner contribute to the 
baptism of the Spirit ? No : For we read of those 
who were thus baptized without it. Is it enjoined by 
Christ ? No. It is not then christian baptism, and 
those who thus consider it, are looking for the living 
among the dead ; they follow the shadow, but the 
body is of Christ. 

The above citation haa so important a bearing on 
the subject, that it was deemed necessary in this 
place. I now proceed with the argument. 

To attempt the refutation of an opinion, before 
that opinion is understood, is foolishly to darken coun- 
sel by words without knowledge. Your impression 
from the citation is clearly this ; that the disciples 
were to teach all nations— to baptize with or in 
water, using this form of words : I baptize thee in the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost. If this be its import, and it can be made 
obvious, either by the foregoing, or any other passage 
of scripture, I shall submit to its authority, publicly 
confess my former error, and ask for myself the per- 
formance of this rite. 

Let us carefully examine this commission. Are 
baptism in water, and baptism into the name, &:c. sy- 
nonymous terms ? No judicious man will publicly 
assert it. We see no authority for inserting water af- 
ter baptism, and are not justified by the context in 
supposing that the least intention existed to have it 
so understood: nay, the passage in Mark 16 : 16 — 
20. which is evidently a parallel text, fully refutes 
the conjecture. Here again no element is mention- 
ed, and it would be as correct to say that material 

18 



206 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



fire was intended, as material water. But the pro- 
mise in the 17th and 18th verses shows what was the 
omission. In my name shall they cast out demonSj 
[not devils] &;c. And this idea perfectly corresponds 
with the characteristics of spiritual baptism, which is 
in demonstration of the Spirit, and of power. This 
is the baptism administered through the instrumental- 
ity of Paul, in the passage already quoted from the 
Acts, and is, I am well persuaded, the only baptism 
belonging to the gospel dispensation* That it is thus 
to be understood is made plain bj 1 Cor. 1 : 14, and 
onward, written seven years after the passage in Acts, 
giving information of the baptism of about twelve men 
by Paul. If these men were baptized in water, and 
at one time, the memory of Paul must have been very 
treacherous, while writing to the Corinthians that he 
had baptized but Crispus, Gains, and the household 
ofStephanus. 

Having seen that water baptism was a peculiar dis- 
pensation committed to John as the last and greatest 
of the prophets— that it w^as neflfr, but not i/i, the gos- 
pel kingdom — that it gradually receded as the bap- 
tism of the Spirit approached — that Jesus neither 
practised it, nor at any time commanded it — that 
Paul gav^ his voice against it — and that no form of 
words can amalgamate the two distinct, dissimilar, 
and unconnected baptisms into one iopfz^mj—perhaps 
a further examination of the subject may be thought 
superfluous. Such, however, is not my impression. 
Of the correctness of this decision, let others deter- 
mine. 

It does certainly seem astonishing, that in full view 
of the texts already cited, and a vast number of others^ 
some men will yet adhere to these " divers washings 
and carnal ordinances,'' which can neither cleanse 
from filthiness of spirit, nor make the comers thereto 
perfect as pertaining to the conscience— but it is still 



FRIENDLY LETTERS, 



207 



more preposterously absurd, that the very substance 
of Christian baptism has been changed into a form of 
words, without having the power thereof. In [into] 
the name of the Father^ and of the Son^ and of the 
Holy Spirit — is not once used as a formulary in the 
New Testament, for the consecration of water bap- 
tism. This assertion may surprise you and others 
who have heard so much said of positive ordinan- 
ces and unchangeable institutions — but a careful ex- 
amination of the written word will convince you, that 
the truth of the declaration exceeds its novelty. 

Finding that the subject has already occupied more 
space than was at first intended, I will now turn 
your attention to some passages which exhibit the 
distinctive features of Christian baptism, as contra- 
distinguished from the dispensation of types and shad- 
ows, both in its manner and power. 

Rom. 6 : 3 and onward. " Know ye not, that so 
many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were 
baptized into his death ? Therefore we are buried 
with him by baptism into death ; [not in water] that 
like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glo- 
ry of the Father, even so we also should walk in new- 
ness of life," — Knowing this, that our old man is 
crucified with him^ that the body of sin might be de- 
stroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." 
What is to be understood by being baptized into his 
death, and planted together in the likeness of his 
death, is learned by the following : For in that he 
died, he died to sin once ; but in that he liveth, he 
liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also your- 
selves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive unto God 
through Jesus Christ our Lord." 

The same idea is also conveyed in 1 Pet. 3: 
where, in speaking of Christ as being put to death in 
the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit — and referring 
to the eight souls saved in the ark, he says : — ^"The 



208 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



xiKE FIGURE whercunto baptism doth also now save 
us, [N. B.] (not the putting away of the filth of the 
flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards 
God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." Can 
w^ater baptism do this ? 

Paul, speaking of circumcision, Rom. 2 : 28, says : 
He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is 
that circumcision which is outward in the flesh ; but 
he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision 
is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter, 
whose praise is not of men, but of God." That cir- 
cumcision and the dispensation of John were both 
to cease at the introduction of that more glorious dis- 
pensation to which they both pointed. Am 1 justified 
in this conclusion ? Read and judge for yourself. 

This epistle might be protracted to a much greater 
length, and illustrated by a multitude of scripture 
testimonies — but I forbear. That you may receive 
the baptism of that Spirit which leadethinto all truths 
is the sincere wish of 

Yours in the gospel, 

JULIUS, 



liETTSR 7. 

Dear Sir^ — My intention has been, to close, as near- 
ly as possible, every subject in the Letter in which it 
has commenced : a few remarks, however, connected 
with the last, have necessarily been reserved for the 
present number. 

When John says, " And I knew him not ; but that 
he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I 
come baptizing with water ;" I think the fair import 
of the language is, I am come baptising with water^ as 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. i09 



tbe precursor of him who shall baptize, not with my 
baptism, but with the baptism of the spkit, even Fire 
— the Prince of Peace, the promised Messiah. John 
preached as before noticed — The kingdom of heaven 
is at hand ; signifying that it was then near, even at 
the very doors. But where would be the propriety 
of saying, that it was at hand, if it has already come? 
But the grammatical construction of the sentence ren- 
ders the fact evident, that the object of John, as be- 
fore stated, was to point out to Israel, him of whom 
the prophets had long prophesied, the Messenger of 
the covenant* Therefore, for this reason— what rea- 
son ? One of two must be the reason, as only two 
statements are made ; viz. either on account of John's 
ignorance of his person, or for the purpose of pointing 
him out, as the Lamb of God, who was to take away 
the sin of the world. That his ignorance of the per- 
son of Jesus, should be the reason of furnishing John 
with a special commission, is too ridiculously absurd 
to merit a serious argument. That the purpose was, 
as already stated, remains the only rational method of 
obtaining any information as to the intention of the 
language. This must then be satisfactory. How he 
was thus manifested to Israel, is evident from the de- 
scent of the Spirit, and from John's testimony to those 
whom he immersed, to whom he declared that they 
should believe on him who was to come after him, 
that is, on Jesus Christ. Viewing the subject in this 
light, we see a good reason for the emphasis which 
John employs in speaking of water baptism, and the 
distinction which he endeavoured to keep up between 
his baptism of water, and the baptism of his successor, 
which was a spiritual ordinance. 

I shall now claim the privilege of remarking briefly 
on the testimony of Jesus respecting John. ''For I 
iay unto you, among those that are born of women 
there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist ; 

i8* 



210 FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



but he that is least in the kingdom of God, is greater 
than he." The kingdom of God, as here used, will 
be considered as the gospel kingdom. You will not 
readily contend, that the greatest of prophets was 
spoken of as an outcast from the kingdom of glory, 
most surely. The point must be granted, that Christ 
here spoke of the gospel dispensation on earth. The 
conclusion then is, that if the least in this kingdom 
were greater than this prophet, John was not in the 
dispensation of which we have spoken. But, in care- 
fully noting the phraseology, another consideration 
may claim a moment's attention. — I have no wish to 
spiritualize every sentence of scripture, but shall for 
the present remark merely, that in the figurative lan- 
guage of scripture, women and children are used to 
denote weakness.— Thus, in Isa. 3 : 4, 12, the prophet 
says—" And I will give children to be their princes, 
and babes shall rule over them. As for my people, 
children are their oppressors, and women rule over 
them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee 
to err, and destroy the way of thy paths/' Viewed 
in this light, is it unreasonable to presume, that Christ 
referred to John as belonging to that dispensation 
which was soon to be dissolved for the weakness and 
unprofitableness thereof ? This, yow will perceive, 
is merely brought as a corollary- — the evidence is 
perfect without it. 

While noticing Mark 16 : 17, in the previous letter, 
I have put demons^ rather than the term devils^ be- 
cause daimonia^ not diabolos^ is the word used in the 
original ; and 1 am sustained by the kighest authori- 
ty in saying, that All the diseased, whom the Lord 
healed, are said to have been oppressed by the devil.'* 
Devil, Satan, and Demon, are terms used to denote 
an adversary : thus Paul speaks of himself as having 
a thorn in the flesh, an angel-adversary, to buffet him, 
or as it is rendered in the common version, a messen- 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 211 



ger of Satan. " The best commentators suppose that 
the bodily affliction, or thorn in the flesh, here refer- 
red to, was some paralytic symptom.'" " Satan^ is the 
personification of the principle of opposition : diseas- 
es are often attributed to Satan, not because the dev- 
il is, or was supposed to be, the author of them : but, 
because they are destructive to health, ease, and en- 
joyment/' Im. version. Note Luke 13. But to 
convince you that the belief in demons, or the spirit 
of departed, evil minded people, as the cause of dis- 
dressing maladies both mental and bodily, continues 
tolhis day, I shall quote part of a joint letter from cer- 
tain missionaries at Bombay. 

" When the cholera made its appearance in this 
region, about four months ago, it first hghted on that 
people. In a few days, one hundred and twenty per- 
sons died. The heart-sickening scenes which were 
exhibited during that season, were unparalleled. The 
sick and the dying were brought into the presence of 
the village god, and there beaten with rods, under the 
impression that the demon, that is, the disease, would 
be driven from them, while men and women, in the 
midst of a great assembly, were seen dancing in the 
most wild and furious manner, shaking and falling in- 
to trances, pretending to receive the god into them- 
selves, and then promising health and safety to all 
who would implicitly trust them, and pray well for the 
supposed benefit." You may see from this, that 
changing the word devil to demon, is not only conso- 
nant with the original, but that its application is pre- 
cisely as it was originally understood, and as some 
continue to understand it, even to our own day. 

I wish you, Sir, distinctly to understand, that noth- 
ing but the strongest testimony against the use of wa- 
ter baptism, as a rite belonging to the Christian dis- 
pensation, has led me to the present conclusion. I 
was taught in my juvenile years, that Pedo-baptism 



212 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



was correct. This you disallow, notwithstanding the 
fearful odds in numbers, pitted against you. I was 
afterwards persuaded that immersion on a profession 
of faith, was the only proper mode of baptism. More 
study, and a deeper research of the Scriptures, with a 
determination to follow the light of truth, wherever it 
might lead, has landed me where you now find me, a 
believer in the one baptism of which an apostle 
speaks, viz. the baptism of the Spirit. I have no in- 
terest to maintain, no antipathies to gratify, and not a 
solitary motive to differ from you, save a desire to con- 
form as nearly as possible, to the oracles of God. 
Under all these circumstances, and in full view of the 
whole testimony afforded, whether I have written 
with a single eye to the elucidation of truth-— judge 

ye. - 

I now turn to the examination of the quotations 
with which you have favoured me, though for want of 
room, I cannot now take them up in the order which 
you have cited, and I had intended. Mat. 10: 15, 
and its corresponding text. Mat. 1 1 : 24, will come 
first under examination. 

Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable 
for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of 
judgment, than for this city/' '' But I say unto you, 
That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom, 
in the day of judgment, than for thee." 

The first idea generally gathered from these passa- 
ges, is, that as the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomor- 
rah are now'^ suffering the vengence of eternal fire,'' 

* In the Christian Secretary, No. 44, in a piece under date, 
Hartford, Nov. 20, 1826," headed Outrage,'' is the following— 
*^ Sodom and Gorniorrah,and the cities of the plain, li/io^e inhabit- 
tinis, the Scriptures declare, are wow suffering the vengeance of eter- 
nal fire'' It may be permitted us to ask, if the inhabitants of Sod- 
om and Gormorrah have now suffered for ages, and are still suffer- 
ing, on account of their transgressions, what have they to do with a 
general judgment ? do they come out by a writ of habeus corpus^ 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



213 



in which they have been suffering for ages, and in 
which they are to be tormented while Jehovah shall 
reign— those who should reject the christian dispen- 
sation, were to suffer the most intense tortures of an 
endless hell, deemed proportionate to the greater de- 
gree of light against which they transgressed. This 
idea appears to be strengthened by the context. '^And 
thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, 
shall be brought down to hell.'' 1 think no person 
will contend for a more rigid understanding of this 
text than is contained in the last quotation. Let us 
scan it, ^and, if possible, determine its meaning. No 
person will deny4hat heaven and hell are here used 
in contrast. Heaven denotes the pinnacle of eleva- 
tion in w^hich they stood in point of privilege. All ad- 
mit this ; what then is the contrast ? Ans. That 
they sunk proportionally low on account of their stub- 
bornness and disobedience. Of hades ^ the Greek 
v/ord here rendered Ae//, the learned and critical Dr. 
Campbell thus speaks : " In my judgment, it ought 
never in scripture to be rendered hell, at least in the 
sense wherein that word is now universally under- 
stood by christians." The corresponding Hebrew 
word is sheol^ ^ which signifies the state of the dead in 
general,^' without the least regard to their happiness 
or misery. Darkness and silence were the two prom- 
inent ideas attached to this word, and " to this the 

to inquire into the cause of their imprisonment ? Then they may 
have suffered wrongfully. If they rightly suffer, why make a for- 
mal judgmenU on those who are already judged, condemned, and in 
the present endurance of their punishment ! But the Scripture 
neither says, nor intimates^ that they are NOW suffering the ven- 
geance of eternal fire. To the man who can show the reverse, I 
promise a Ten dollar Bible, to be paid the hour in which he can 
produce it. I repeat, the expression in the Secretary is false, and 
Mr. Robins is now publicly admonished that he has wrested the 
Scriptures^ and handled the, word of God deceilfully* I am person- 
ally responsible for the assertion, as may be ascertained at the office 
of the Religious Inquirer. 



214 FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



word hell, in its primitive signification, perfectly cor- 
responded ; for at first, it denoted only what was se- 
cret or concealed.''' So much then for the contrast, 
which was perfectly famihar to the ancients, by whom 
this mode of contrast was understood to signify as 
great a depth under the surface of the earth, as the 
material heavens are above it. That nothing more 
Was meant by this contrast than temporal calamities, 
is evident by the close of the 23d verse. 

For if the mighty works which have been done 
in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have re- 
mained until this day.'' 

But it may be necessary here to obviate an objec- 
tion. The day of judgment'^ is supposed to refer 
to some time yet to come, called the general judgmen t^ 
at which time all God's intelhgent offspring are to be 
assembled, and receive sentence according to works, 
notwithstanding the current sentiment that those who 
shall be saved, deserve to be damned, in the common 
sense of this word. Without entering into the argu- 
ment at present, I seriously ask you to inquire into 
the scriptures, for the truth and consistency of the 
sentiment, remarking, however, that ''a day of judg- 
ment'' would be a better translation. The judgment 
day of Sodom was long anterior to that of Judea, 
which Jeremiah describes in Lam. 4 : 6 — For the 
punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my peo- 
ple is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, 
that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands 
stayed on her." As no possible room is left for cavil, 
as to the excess of punishment inflicted on the cities 
of Judea, over and above the punishment of the Sod- 
omites, it may be well to ascertain in what the differ- 
ence consisted. The prophet, speaking of Sodom, 
says it was destroyed, ' as in a moment^ and no hands 
stayed on her.' 

But in visiting the iniquity of the daughters of Jer- 



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215 



^iiiah's people, the hands of the Romans ' stayed on 
her,' from the 14th of April, to the 8th of September, 
when the siege terminated, leaving Jerusalem the 
subject of a thousand prophecies — destroyed by the 
flame, bleeding on every side, and sunk in ruin and 
desolation." How well the dreadful catastrophe of 
the destruction of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the 
Jewish nation, agrees with the prediction of Jeremi- 
ah, let those who choose to read this fourth chapter of 
the Lamentations determine. But in reading this, it 
is not possible to miss the fact, that the day of judg- 
ment" for this guilty people, was at the time to which 
I allude, and that temporal calamities, sufficiently 
dreadful indeed, filled up the cup of affliction for this 
devoted people. Thus the tongue of the sucking 
child cleaveth to his mouth for thirst — children ask 
bread in vain, those who had fed delicately were to be 
desolate, and those who were brought up in scarlet, 
to embrace dunghills. After this description, comes 
the text already cited ; but the prophet does not stop 
here. He describes their visage as black, and their 
skin cleaving to their bones, two marks of famine, and 
gives his testimony in favour of the state of those who 
are slain by the sword, rather than of those who are 
slain by hunger ; and finishes the appalling descrip- 
tion of these dreadful calamities, by declaring in the 
energetic language of prophecy — " The hands af the 
pitiful women have sodden their own children ; they 
were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of 
my people/' Here then is the punishment of a peo- 
ple which is greater than that of Sodom. But why 
was all this ? See 5 : 13. — For the sins of her proph- 
ets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed 
the blood of the just in the midst of her.'' Now turn 
to Mat. 23 : 34, to the close, and answer me, whether 
these passages do not perfectly correspond, and 
whether the records of the siege and sacking of Jeru- 



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salem, do not so completely coincide with the com- 
parative prediction of Jeremiah, as to settle an indis- 
putable fact, that the destruction of Jerusalem was the 
fulfilment of the prophecy. The judgment day of 
Judeawas indeed dreadful beyond all which had pre- 
ceded, or which would succeed it — but the whole was 
temporal suffering. Much correlative testimony, and 
many corroborating facts might be introduced in con- 
firmation of these arguments, but close attention to 
the subject may convince any rational man that I have 
always brought forward sufficient of both to sustain 
the argument. 

Yours in truth, 

JULIUS. 

"***♦♦"© 

LETTER 8. 

Dear Sir^ — I am certainly gratified by some of your 
remarks on my last production ; more especially, be- 
cause I perceive that your candour has in some meas- 
ure triumphed over long cherished prejudices. Per- 
ceiving, however, that some of these ancient prejudi- 
ces are so deeply engraven on your mind, as still par- 
tially to obscure the mental vision, I shall now pursue 
the subject further. You fairly grant that the Bible 
does not directly declare the Sodomites to be now suf- 
fering the vengeance of eternal fire ; but yet contend 
that it is fairly inferred — and how ? By the current 
understanding of Jude 7." But are you willing to 
abide by the current understanding of the christian 
public respecting the article of baptism ? You cer- 
tainly are not; for, judging by the tenor of your la- 
test epistle, you are even now prepared to renounce 
water baptism altogether. But let us examine this 
passage which is supposed to relate the condemnation 



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217 



of the multitudes composing the cities of the plain'' 
to interminable burnings. 

Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities 
about them in hke manner, giving themselves over to 
fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth 
for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal 
fire." 

Be pleased now to accompany me in a comparative 
view of this language. Giving themselves over— go- 
ing after — suffering the vengeance. Here giving^ go- 
ings suffering — are used in the same tense, without a 
distinsiuishin^ word which can even be wrested 
to imply any difference in their application. You 
cantiot deny the inference ; if this passage inti- 
mates that they are now suffering, it also intimates 
that they are now giving themselves over to fornica- 
tion, and that they are now going after strange flesh. 
The absurdity of the latter propositions is too palpa- 
ple to escape notice— that of the former is not less so^ 
for they are indivisible, and nothing but the " current 
understanding'' on which you rely for authority, con- 
tinues to shield it from absolute contempt. 

But you urge that they are set forth for an example. 
—Granted ; but how are they an example ? Can the 
sight, or hearing, or any other sense, take cognizance 
of the sufferings of those who occupy nameless re- 
gions, where pain must hold the sceptre of empire 
while God shall continue to exist ? No. Man has not 
seen, man has not heard, and man has not felt it. 
God has 710 where revealed it. The imagination of 
man has coojured up this and other phantoms ; the 
metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls, has been 
current among tens of thousands ; it is current still ; 
the belief in possessions by evil spirits has been sufli- 
cieatly current in our own country to disgrace it by 
the stain of innocent blood, and the prolific fancy of 
enthusiasts in all ages^ has given currency to numer= 

Id 



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ous and abominable absurdities. Bat the source of 
these currents is not inexhaustible. Truth is older 
than error, and will finally triumph : as darkness re* 
cedes before the rising sun, so will ignorance and su- 
perstitious fear disappear the light of that divine 
knowledge which is destined to visit the children of 
earth, until all shall know the Lord, and rejoice in 
his salvation. 

But we will return more directly to the subject. 
The common understanding of Jude 7. as already 
shown, affords no example. That of which we have 
not any knowledge can afford neither precept nor ex- 
ample ; it can neither warn the vicious to depart 
from iniquity, nor encourage the virtuous in a right 
course. If the import of this citation be that for 
which you evidently contend, it is perfectly nugatory 
as an example. That it is not submitted to the per- 
ception of our faculties, is perfectly demonstrable ; 
but even this is not more indubitably certain, than 
that we have neither divine nor human testimony, on 
which the general opinion of this text can find a rest- 
ing place. You would undoubtedly inquire, on this 
ground. What then are we to understand by the text, 
and how apply it as an example ? I answer, first, the 
destruction of these cities is set on high in history: 
and, secondly, the bituminous earth on which these 
cities stood<i continued to burn long after the days of 
the Apostles. It was under these views of the subject 
that Jeremiah wrote in Lam. 4 : and that Ezekiel, in 
Ms 16th chapter, reproves Jerusalem. It requires 
no strained and unnatural exposition of this verse to 
find the example ; on the contrary, a perversion of 
the sense, completely obscures the example behind 
the fog of traditional lore. The example was truly 
terrible, but far less dreadful in its nature than was 
that of Jerusalem, as stated by Jeremiah and EzekieL 
and fully confirmed by Christ. 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 219 



Relative to the phrase eternal Jire^ it signifies no 
more than the fire of the age, aionion fire. This has 
no possible allusion to another state of existence. If 
the cities of the plain were destroyed by fire, why 
need we carry the idea any further ? We certainly 
lead of no other fire than that in which their bodies 
were consumed, nor do the scriptures say or intimate 
that they are now in a conscious state of existence,, 
Let who will, prove by the Bible, the reverse of this 
position, before he pretends to fix the particular situ- 
ation of the Sodomites. I hardly need say to you, 
that sulfering implies consciousness. Neither Moses, 
nor Jeremiah, nor Ezekiel in the Old Testament — nor 
yet Jesus Christ nor Jude in the New Testament, no- 
tice such a catastrophe a? that to which you advert* 
The scriptures speak of them as being overthrown, 
and suddenly destroyed ; but of their after-state, not 
a lisp is known, save that which relates to their final 
restoration. Let us then have the modesty to receive 
the testimony as we find it, not striving to be wise above 
what is written. Having in vain called upon you to 
show that eternal life is so used in the scriptures as 
necessarily to point out another state of being, I waive 
the further consideration oiiliis topic until convinced 
by facts and counter-arguments that the position al- 
ready taken is untenable. 

Having occupied room which would necessarily 
exclude a portion of the next subject under con- 
templation, the rem.ainder of this number will be oc- 
cupied by additional remarks on the subject already 
partially examined in a former, as also in the present 
Letter. You are aware that the cases of the antedi- 
luvians, the Sodomites, Judas Iscariot, and probably- 
some others, have been considered as not only despe- 
rate, but absolutely out of the pale of possible salva- 
tion. I shall now endeavour to show that the people 
of whom we have lately been speaking are not in this 



220 FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



forlorn situation. Should I succeed, it is left with jom 
to say by what facts, or by what arguments, the 
titter and irreparable destruction of any can be pro- 
ved. 

You will probably recollect that Jeremiah declares 
the punishment of Jerusalem to be greater than that 
of Sodom. Let this fact be well kept in memory. 
It cannot be necessary to bring evidence to show that 
Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire, nor 
that Jerusalem was desolated by intestine divisions, 
by famine, by the sword, and finally, by being sacked 
and plundered by the Romans. — It is hence evident, 
that the momentary sufferings of the inViabitants of 
Sodom, though severe while they lasted, were less 
dreadful than the complicated and protracted distress- 
es of Jerusalem. No train of argument is required to 
prove this. Every person of observation must easily 
be satisfied, that the punishment of the latter was more 
intolerable than that of the former, and that the 
weight of the Roman hands which remained on the 
*• devoted city,'' made the afflictions of the Jews far 
more dreadful than the sudden destruction of Sodom^. 
Without looking into a future state, therefore, we see 
the fulfilment of Jeremiah's prediction. And why 
should we labour to find it renewed and augmented in 
another state of being ? Are we sure that this predic- 
tion must necessarily fail unless it be met by a double 
accomplishment ? If so, where is the proof? * 

But in referring to the account of Moses, Gen. 19 : 
J 6, 17, we find that Lot was preserved from the de- 
struction which came upon the Sodomites, and that 
the destruction was a temporal calamity. This we 
learn from Jeremiah who speaks of the punishment of 
Jerusalem as exceeding that of Sodom. Does end- 
less suffering in eternal fire, according to your the- 
ory, bear the superlative degree ? If so, your ministers 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



221 



would do a service to the world by quoting chapter 
and verse for the maintenance of this tenet. 

Notwithstanding the greater wickedness, and the 
more dreadful punishment of Jerusalem, the prophet- 
ic eye of Isaiah saw through the vista of ages the re- 
turn of that devoted, yet beloved city. " Comfort ye, 
comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye 
comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her 
warfare is accomphshed, that her iniquity is pardon- 
ed ; for she hath received of the Lord's hand, double 
for all her sins." The 3d verse of this 40th chapter, 
points to the time of our Saviour's appearance for the 
fulfilment of this prediction. That Christ referred 
to the same event, is too evident to be denied by those 
who will examine his awful denunciations against the 
capital of Judea. Reasoning analogically, then, is it 
not clear, that if the favour of God abounds to the 
dwellers in that sinful city, laden with iniquity, the 
inhabitants of Sodom, who are described by Ezekiei 
as " more righteous than'' the Jews, shall enjoy the 
smiles of Deity, notwithstanding their sudden over- 
throw ? ^ 

But analogical reasoning, however fair and conclu- 
sive, is not the sole support of this behef. The words 
of prophecy render the proposition cer^am. And let 
it be remembered, once for all, that all this array of 
scripture and argument, is set in opposition to a tenet 
which rests on no better authority than current opin- 
ion — a meteor which always eludes the grasp— a mere 
shadow of a shade. But however fanciful may be the 
origin of those vain imaginations which " lead to be- 
wilder and dazzle to Wind," still, as the effects are 
painful, both duty and inclination call onus to use the 
most efficient means for the removal of the cause. 
Having already quoted scripture as the foundation of 
legitimate and conclusive argument, it will now be 
used as direct and positive testimony. See Ezek. 

19* 



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1G : where the prophet, in speaking of the judgments 
which were to be poured out upon Jerusalem, and 
their ultimate return to the God of their salvation, 
uses the following, and other similar language : 

When I shall bring again their captivity, the cap- 
tivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity 
of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again 
the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them/' 
tK7=Some years ago a clergyman in New York, to es- 
cape the unavoidable conclusion of the language, de- 
clared it was written ironically ! Let those who would 
reiterate such a sophism, read the whole chapter, but 
especially the following : — " For thy sister Sodom 
was not mentioned by thy mouth in the day of thy 
pride. For thus saith the Lord God, I will deal with 
thee as thou hast done. Nevertheless, I will remem- 
ber my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, 
and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant. 
Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, 
when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and 
thy younger : and I will give them unto thee for 
daughters, but not by thy covenant. And I will es-^ 
iabhsh MY covenant with thee ; and thou shalt know 
that I am the Lord." 

Remember — 1 will deal with thee as thou hast 
done." Did the Jews ever confer the curse of end- 
less misery on any portion of God's creation ? But, 
here is the direct testimony. To rebut this will re- 
quire what you can never produce — better and coun^ 
hr evidence. Yours truly, 

JULIUS. 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



223 



XiSTTEK 9 

Dear Sir^ — If you please, we will now return from 
the digression occasioned by your scruples, and ex* 
amine Mat. 8:12. '^But the children of the king- 
dom shall be cast into outer darkness ; there shall be 
weeping and gnashing of teeth." The following is the 
translation of this passage in the improved version, by 
Mr. Kneeland, and is, I think, rather an improvement 
on the common version. But the sons of the kingdom 
shall be thrust out into darkness, and there shall be 
M^eeping and gnashing of teeth." I have not noticed 
the difference in the mode of rendering this cita- 
tion, because I conceive the se7ise to be different, but 
because the language is more intelligible. In the 
common translation, different editions vary in the 
word outer^ which is frequently rendered utter. But 
let us examine the text in such a manner as to find 
the sense, and if possible ascertain its true meaning. 

You are already aware of my mode of investigating 
a text by its context. The utility of this method is 
too obvious to need a remark on the present occasion. 
What then, says the context ? 

And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, 
there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, 
And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of 
the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith 
unto him, 1 will come and heal him. The centurion 
answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou 
shouldest come under my roof : but speak the word 
only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a 
man under authority, having soldiers under me : and 
I say to this mmi. Go, and he goeth ; and to another, 
Come, and he cometh ; and to my servant, Do this, 
and he doeth it. When Jesus heard if, he marvelled 
arid said to them that followed. Verily I say unto you, 
I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And 



224 



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I say unto you, That many shall come from the east 
and west, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac, 
and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.'' 

After this comes the text — " But the children of the 
Kingdom shall be cast into outer darkness : there 
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'' That here 
is a contrast, and a great one, is obvious, and our 
business is to learn in what it consists. The dirFer- 
ence seems to obtain between the many who shall 
come from the east, and the west, and the children of 
the kingdom. Who are thus designated we can easily 
learn from the scriptures. 

Respecting the apostacy and rejection of the Jewish 
nation, our Lord spake many parables. It was an 
event, to which, merely as a Jew, he looked with the 
most intense intei-est. It lay near his heart, and was 
the frequent theme of his discourses. The parables 
of the vineyard, the talents, the labourers, the mar- 
riage feast, the ten virgins, the sheep and goats, the 
prodigal son, the unjust steward, the rich man and Laz- 
arus, and a variety of others, are all examples of the 
prediction of this event, and a little attention to our sub- 
ject will exhibit the same information. In the parable 
of the vineyard, our Lord says to the Jews, ''The king- 
dom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a na- 
tion bringing forth the fruits thereof." In the psirable of 
the marriage feast, after the king had ordered the man 
without a wedding garment into darkness, it says, 
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth/' The 
commencement of this parable states, that the king- 
dom of heaven is like to a certain king, which made a 
marriage for his son. That the kingdom of heaven 
here signifies the gospel dispensation, is too evident 
to admit a cavil. Here, then, see the kingdom from 
which the children of the kingdom were to be ejected, 
Christ '' came to his own, and his own received him 
not.'' He was a Jew^ and the Jews were his owa 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



people. The Jewish church was a vine of God's 
planting, but they nnade void the word of God by their 
traditions, and brought down on their guilty heads 
the woes denounced by Christ on their chief city.— 

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, tJiou that killest the pro- 
phets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how 
often would I have gathered thy children together, 
even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, 
and ye would not. Behold, your house is left unto 
you desolate." When the king learned that those 
w ho were first bidden, refused to come, he " sent forth 
his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burn- 
ed their city.'' How well this agrees with the fate of 
the Jewish nation, you need not to be inform.ed. Nor 
uecd I to advise you, how exactly the conduct of 
those invited to the marriage feast corresponds with 
the character of the Jews, and the usage which the 
primitive apostles received at their hands. 

Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, 
and wise men, and scribes : and some of them ye shall 
kill and crucify ; and some of them shall ye scourge 
in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to 
city : That upon you may com.e all the righteous 
blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of right- 
eous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Bara- 
chias, whom ye slew between the temple and the 
altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall 
come upon this generation." 

A question is now pertinent. If all the blood of 
martyrs which had been shed on the earth were to be 
required of that generation, in what was the retribution 
to consist ? I am not ignorant of what will be an- 
swered, but is it correct ? Shall we receive the dic- 
tum of man's wisdom, or shall we leave it to be an- 
swered by him who made the prediction ? We pre- 
fer the latter. What then is it ? 



^26 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



" Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.— 
For 1 say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, 
till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the 
name of the Lord." 

Jerusalem was to be destroyed, and the inhabitants 
of Judea were to be scattered among all nations. The 
city was to be made desolate, and no man dwell 
therein, and all for the iniquities of the people. It 
was to be a hissing and a reproach, and a by-word, 
and the nation scattered and peeled. Bat was this 
all ? Yes, for the time is yet to come, when they 
shall say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of 
the Lord,'' — I speak this with confidence, because 
the word till is never used in predictions of this na- 
ture, but in the affirmative. 

The darkness into which the children of the King- 
dom were to be cast, is undoubtedly the darkness of 
mind in which they grope to the present day ; for 

blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the 
fullness of the Gentiles be come in," He who is in 
a state of bUndness, is most surely in darkness ; and 
he that is outside the present blessings of the gospel 
covenant, is in aider darkness. When the master of 
the house, Jesus rose, and shut to the door, the Gen« 
tiles were zvilhvn^ and the Jews were shut out : and 
this sentiment is clearly expressed in Acts 13, 

And the next sabbath-day came almost the whole 
city together to hear the word of God. But when the 
Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, 
and spake against those things which were spoken by 
Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and 
Barnabas waxed bold, and ^a d^ It was necessary that 
the word of God should first bav 'r^en spoken to you : 
but seeing, ye put it from i^^^ .^udge yourselves 
unworthy of everfesting I'se, Ic, ^-^^-j .urn to the Gen- 
tiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, sayings 



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227 



I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou 
shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth." 

When Stephen rehearsed to the Jews the iniquities 
of their fathers, and their own stubbornness, what was 
the effect ? Read and learn for yourself. 

" Ye stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and 
ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost : as your fa- 
thers did^ so do ye. Which of the prophets have not 
your fathers persecuted ? and they have slain them 
which shewed before of the coming of the Just One ; 
of whom ye have been now the betraj ers and mur- 
derers. Who have received the law by the disposition 
of angels, and have not kept it. When they heard 
the»!e things, they were cut to the heart, and they 
gnashed on him with their teeth. 

" They gnashed on him with their teeth.''' Now I 
need not inform you, that this gnashr.g of teeth was 
in this world — No one can be weak enough to dispute 
it. That the people who conducted so foolishly were 
in mental darkness, is not, and I trust will not be, a 
contested point. Then here is an example of a peo- 
ple or the children of the kingdom, in a state of dark- 
ness, outer darkness, and gnasMng iheir teeth — and 
all in this state of being where sin and misery exist, 
and of whose existence we can take cognizance. But 
to show conclusively, that the darkness and gnasbmg 
of teeth relates to the situation of the Jews, in this 
world, I refer you to Luke 13, where our Lord clear- 
ly points out to us the situation of the Jews, when the 
gospel shall spxead into Gentile countiies. 

When once the Master of the house is risen up, 
and hath shut to the door, and ye be^ari to stand with- 
out, and to knock at the door, saying. Lord, Lord, 
open unto us ; and he shall ans wer and say unto )ou, 
I know you not whence ye are : then shall ye begin 
to say. We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, 
and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, 



223 



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1 tell you, I know you not whence ye are ; depart 
from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be 
weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall seei 
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, 
in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. 
And they shall come from the east, and from the west, 
and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit 
down in the kingdom of God. And behold there are 
last which shall be first, and there are first which shall 
be last/' 

By the Master of the house, we must evidently un- 
derstand Jesus Christ, and by his being risen up^ his 
resurrection. Having then closed the Mosaic dispen- 
sation, and opened the gospel kingdom, which should 
be preached to every creature, and the Jews not be- 
ing prepared to receive a suffering Messiah, the door 
w^^s shut against them, and opened on the Gentiles^ 
agi^eable to PauPs declaration, already quoted. The 
reason why the Jews did not then enter into the gos- 
pel kingdom, is thus expressed by Paul. For they 
being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going 
about to establish their own righteousness, have not 
submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. 
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to 
every one that beheveth.'' And attain : — 

"What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, 
which followed not after righteousness have attained 
to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of 
fa th. But Israel, which followed after the law of 
righteousness, hath not attained to the law of right- 
eousness. Wherefore ? Because they sought it not 
by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For 
they stumbled at the stumbling-stone ; As it is writ- 
ten, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling stone and rock 
of offence : and whosoever believeth on him shall not 
be ashamed,'*' 



FRIENDLY LETTERS 22^ 

Perhaps enough has been said to satisfy your mind 
on this subject, but I shall suggest another considera- 
tion which seems to me of some consequence. After 
stating that men should come from the east, west^ 
north and south, and sit down in the kingdom of 
God, he adds, " And behold ! there are last 
which shall be first, and first which shall be last.'^ 
You are aware that the Jews were the first people 
chosen for the depository of God's name — the first 
which composed a church to his praise. Proud of 
this privilege, they abused his mercies and considered 
themselves the only people to whom God would grant 
a revelation. Their privileges were great, as de- 
clared by the prophets and apostles, and are summed 
up by Paul in the following words ; 

" What advantage then hath the Jew ? or what 
profit is there of circumcision ? Much every way : 
chiefly, because that unto them were committed the 
oracles of God/- 

They were therefore the first nation whom the 
Lord chose of all the nations on the face of the earth, 
as the medium through which the knowledge of the 
true God was revealed to the world ; but being re- 
jected through unbehef, from the gospel economy, the 
Gentiles, who had been last^ became Jirst^ and thus 
the Jirst became the last^ under the new order of 
things. But that this change in the order of prefer- 
ment had no bearing on the final state of the two sorts 
of people who are thus contra-distinguished, is evi- 
dent by the declarations of a Jew, who was once 
known as the most violent persecutor of Christians. 
" I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God 
forbid.'' After cautioning the Gentiles not to be wise 
in their own conceits, on account of the partial 
blindness of Israel, and stating that this must con- 
tinue until the fulness of the Gentiles should come 
in, he adds; "And so all Israel shall be saved, as it 

20 



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is written : There shall come out of Sion the deliver- 
er, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob : 
[why ?} For this is my covenant with them when I 
shall take away their sins." It is thus in the gospel 
economy, that those who had been first should be last, 
and the last first. How you, or any other person, can 
impart to the words under consideration any other 
meaning, I know not. Would you say, that the chil- 
dren of the kingdom, were the devil's property, where 
is your proof ? Comparing carefully what has been 
committed to paper in much haste, and weighing the 
whole subject in the even scales of candour, you will 
not venture to view it in any other light. Abundant 
testimony to the same purpose is at hand, but what 
has already been advanced appears to me sufficiently 
ample to settle the difficulty in your mind. I will just 
observe, however, that as (he fulness of the Gentiles 
includes our nation, we may rest satisfied that we are 
not the children of the kingdom noticed in the text. 
But lack of time admonishes me to forbear. 

Yours in the Gospel, 

JULIUS. 



IiETTEa 10. 

Dear Sz>, — In re-examining your Letter, I perceive 
a citation to which I have not yet attended ; viz. Mat 
3 : 7, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you 
to flee from the wrath to come.'' The great question 
is. Whether the expression wrath to come^ necessarily 
implies that the wrath so expressed is manifested and 
endured in any other world than this ? If it do, then 
let it be exhibited, and all controversy on the tenet of 
misery in a future state of existence, will immediately 
c^Hse. But analogy^ and common usagCy not only 



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231 



among ourselves, but in scripture language, contra- 
dicts this use of the phrase. The prophets, and the 
Baptist John, testify of him who was to come — to 
come where ? Ans. To come to his own, who did 
not receive him. But it is entirely a work of superer- 
ogation, to attempt the proof that two and two are 
four, and precisely as useless would be the labour, to 
maintain that the phrase does not, either in common 
parlance, or scripture usage, necessarily imply any- 
thing beyond the present state of being. Of itself, 
therefore, it proves nothing, nor can it prove any thing, 
to the purpose to which you would apply it, without 
the most perverse obstinacy in the use of terms — and 
a pertinacious adherence to a tenet, at the expense of 
unquestionable and irresistible facts. Under these 
circumstances, you must perceive, that for the sup= 
port of the tenet to which you consider it as pointing, 
it is worse than useless. Perhaps you will be dispos- 
ed to inquire, to what then does it point ? I answer, 
to me it is obvious, that it points to the wrath which 
should come upon the land of Judea, and especially 
upon Jerusalem. My authority is founded on the 
scripture use of the term wrath. Thus in the Gospel 
History by Luke, ch, 21 : 

" For these be the days of vengeance, that all things 
which are written may be falfilled. But woe unto 
them that are with child and to them that give suck 
in those days ! for there shall be great distress in the 
land, and zvrath upon this people.'' 

Now what was the wrath which should come upon 
that people '? Answer. 

And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and 
shall be led away captive into all nations ; and Jeru- 
salem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the 
times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." 

We have now seen in what that wrath consisted^ 
and we have seen that it should continue ^fn■f^l the 



232 



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times of the Gentiles should be fulfiled ; and in the 
eight succeeding verses, we learn that the highly fig- 
urative language of the east, is used to describe the 
events which were coming on the earth. The coming 
of the Son of man in a cloud with power and great 
glory, was a sign that the Kingdom of God, or gospel 
dispensation, was nigh at hand. The time, however, 
was completely settled, as appears by the 32d verse, 
and apphed to that generation in which the Messiah 
predicted, in the days of the Apostles, and at the des- 
truction of Jerusalem, as is most conclusively settled 
by the 20th verse. 

"And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with 
armies, then know that the desolation thereof is 
iiigh." 

In this verse the token is given, which should pre- 
cede the desolation of Jerusalem, or the manifestation 
of that wrath which is noticed in the text. In the 2 1 st 
verse a caution is given, the reason of which appears 
in the 22d— for there shall be great distress, and 
wrath upon this people- This people, was the Jew- 
ish nation, as is too evident to admit a controversy. 
But still you may inquire, how were any to escape 
this desolation ? Most clearly, the belief of this tes- 
timony would lead them to follow his direction — to 
flee from Judea, as did the primitive believers, who 
remained at Pella, while the unbelieving Jews in at- 
tempting to save their lives, lost them, in the dreadful 
horrors of the siege. What more is wanted to evi- 
dence that the wrath mentioned in the text, was to be 
executed at the time and place to which I have al- 
ready alluded ? The language of the context does 
not warrant any other interpretation. Let us then 
leave these vain imaginations, and cleave to the fair 
and obvious meaning of scripture, as interpreted by 
scripture. Seeing then that these days of vengeance 
to which Christ alluded, were then present, and that 



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233 



the fulfilment of all things written by the prophets 
were to come upon that people, I now ask, in my 
turn, what has that event to do with us, except as 
matter of history, and a proof of the divine authority 
of our Saviour''s mission ? 

In examining the correspondent account of this dec- 
laration given by Mark, we learn that the discourse 
was delivered to four of his disciples, and that pnra^e- 
/y. See Mark 13 : 3, 4. 

''And as he sat upon the mount of Olives^ over 
against the temple, Peter, and James, and John, and 
Andrew, asked him privately. Tell us, when shall 
these things be ? and what shall he the sign when all 
these things shall be fulfilled V 

It thus appears, that the text is not part of a gen- 
eral discourse, but merely a portion of his answer to 
a few of his followers, and specially intended for their 
instruction. How this can be pressed into the ser- 
vice for which you have cited it, is for you to answer. 
No important tenet can claim support on so slight a 
foundation, with any prospect of success. If the in- 
dolence of our fathers has prevented them from ex- 
amining into these subjects with due caution, I trust 
a spirit of inquiry is now awakened, which will redeem 
our race from the slavery of mind by which our an- 
cestors have been enthralled. 
Yours in truth, 

JULIUSo 

LETTER 11. 

Dear Sir ^ — I have just received yours of the 24th 
mst. containing the remnant oi your opposition to the 
doctrine of Universal Benevolence. But I ask you, 
nay, I entreat you to introvert the mental vision, and 

20^ 



234 



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to say, in an exchange of circumstances with the Jews, 
whether you would not repeat the language of Cain — 
My punishment is greater than I can bear/' Well 
may they use this language, and add, what sorrow is 
like to my sorrow ? From the days of the Apostles 
to the present age they have been hunted and peeled, 
banished and persecuted, a bye-word and a reproach : 
nay, are they not to this hour, in our own enlightened 
and liberal country, a proverb in the mouth of fools ? 
Add to this, the unparalleled sufferings which came 
upon that generation to which John alluded, and view 
it, as you ought, in a national point of light, and you 
will no longer be disposed to consider the wrath men- 
tioned in Mat, 3 : 7, as having the least connexion 
with any other subject than the destruction and dis- 
persion of that stiff-necked and rebellious people. 

But I shall add a few words to strengthen the posi- 
tion in Letter 10, to which your attention is particu- 
larly invited. The intimation of wrath to come^ was 
made to JewSj as are a very great portion of the threat- 
enings in the New Testament, without any general 
application to men as sinners. But to this I have be- 
fore alluded, in noticing the parables of our Lord, 
which most obviously refer to the same event. Lit- 
tle therefore now remains, but to adduce further proof, 
that the phraseology of scripture justifies the views 
already given on the subject. 

That Daniel alludes to this very event, has already 
been shown at large, by comparing Daniel 12: 1, 
with Mat. 24 : 21 , on a former occasion, and the coin- 
cidence of language used in other portions of scrip- 
ture will now be noticed. Paul, in his first Epistle 
to the Thessalonians, 2 : 14—16, says — 

For ye, brethren, became followers of the church- 
es of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus : for ye 
also have suffered like things of your own country- 
men, even as they have of the Jews : Forbidding us 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



235 



to speak to the Gentiles, that they might be saved, to 
fill up their sins always : for the wrath is come upon 
them to the uttermost.'' 

You will be pleased to bear in mind the expression 
of Daniel, and there shall be a time of trouble, such 
as never was since there was a nation, even to that 
same time : and at that time thy people shall be 
DELIVERED, EVERY ONE that shall be found written in 
the book." That this prediction met its event at the 
destruction of Jerusalem has been fully shown in a 
former paper, as already noticed, and is corroborated 
by the expression of our Saviour, which adds to the 
description of Daniel, as to the distresses of the time, 
by saying, " Except those days should be shortened, 
there should no flesh be saved." Such was the fran- 
tic zeal, the stubborn valour of the Jews, that neither 
famine, nor pestilence, nor intestine division, could 
open their eyes to the utter ruin of their city, till their 
destiny was read by the flames of their temple. Of 
the causes which shortened the horrors of the seige, 
^nd saved some from rotting and burning in Gehenna, 
w\th the immense number of their fellow citizens, it 
is not now necessary to speak. 

Those who were written in the book, the believers 
in Jesus, escaped to a place of safety, and were every 
one delivered. But it is time to attend more particu- 
larly to the words of Paul. Speaking of the near ap- 
proach of the dreadful catastrophe, he says, the 
wrath is come upon them to the uttermost,''^ What 
them ? the Jews, as is obvious by the construction of 
the passage. The Thessalonians are represented as 
followers of the churches of Judea,and suffering from 
their own countrymen, the same as did the believers 
in Judea from the unbelieving Jews. These Jews 
are next described as killing the Lord Jesus, and their 
own prophets, and persecuting the apostles, and of 



T3G 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



these people it is said, that the wrath is come upon 
them to the uttermost.'' 

Having already seen that repeated prediction of 
of rain and distress were appropriated to this people^ 
and to the then existing generation, we will look at 
their correspondence of character. Wherefore, be- 
hold, I send to you prophets and wise men, and 
some of them ye shall kill and crucify ; and some of 
them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and perse- 
cute them from city to city." This then is the char- 
acter of those on whom the wrath was coming to the 
uttermost, and it applies to the Jews as a nation, and 
to them alone in all its length and breadth. Here 
then is the description of the worst people on the face 
of the whole earth, and of the wrath which should 
come upon them to the uttermost. They were ex- 
alted to heaven, and for their transgressions were 
thrust down to helL Their privileges were many ; 
and the abuse of these privileges brought on them 
quick destruction. And, as they excelled all other 
nations in their iniquities, so w^as their punishment 
greater. (See Lam. 4 : 6.) Nay, they stand alone 
in their sins and in their punishment. They were a 
sinful nation — a seed of evil doers— a people laden 
with iniquity, and they are yet without parallel in 
punishment. The time of trouble which came upon 
them exceeded all that had been inflicted on a nation, 
and Christ declares that it should exceed all in after 
time. Bat as Paul declares it was the infliction of 
wrath to the greatest degree, by the term uttermost, no 
room is left for a punishment in a future life beyond 
the superlative degree, which has already been expe- 
rienced in this state of being. 

You will observe that a number of texts still remain 
unnoticed. They are those which have already been 
examined in this publication, and need not another 
investigation, until the views heretofore given of tbem 



FRIENDLY LETTERS, 237 



ahall be called in question. The means are in your 
hand for the information which you ask respecting 
them. The rich man and Lazarus will be the sub- 
ject of the next, and on one account, may be the most 
interesting. 

Yours in truth, 

JULIUS. 

IBTTSm 12. 

[The 12th and 13tli Letters embrace much more matter than 
vvas contained in the original, and are therefore considerably 
iong'er. As they are contained also in the T.in^bt of Truth, 
some little difference vvili be perceived m ths diction.] 

ThatSheol, Shaal, Shau], or Saul, which is the 
same word in a different dress, should signify a place 
of never-ending tormeiit, req^iii js ;'roqf. Inference, 
unless the grounds of inference are rr: stable, amounts 
to little. Where the importance o; ' ni^- i:ce relates 
to the greatest possible coiisequence, anaiOgy iTiust be 
obvious, and the conclusion irresiitibie, ere we can 
give it credence. We hardly need repeat that Saul, 
the very word in question, was a common name in 
Judea, where the import of the word Skeol was well 
understood. Let us then ask, if the word conveyed 
to the minds of the Jewish people, the same idea 
which is attached to it in modern days, would they 
have adopted it as an appellative ? Has any one pro- 
fessing the Christian name, and believing in the hor- 
rid doctrine of endless misery, ever brou2;ht his child 
to the altar, requesting it to be named Hell ? You 
mustanswer instinctively, No. But do we learn by 
the scripture, that those to whom were committed the 
oracles of God, believed in a future, interminable 
punishment? Not a word in scripture appears like 



238 FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



it Nay, the use of the term in most, if not all in- 
stances, utterly /ortit/^ the idea. The meaning in 
nearly every instance, is fixed by the context, and the 
known usages of the people. None but a mad man, 
or an infuriated fanatic, would contend that the patri- 
arch Jacob expected to go to his son Joseph in the 
hell of modern Christendom ; nor would any man in 
his senses contend, that Job would request to be hid- 
den in the Christian hell, from the wrath of Jehovah. 
For, if the wrath of God be exhibited in more dread- 
ful terrors out of hell, that in it, those who would 
drive sinners into heaven by the terrors of hell, have 
not given the most terrible description with which 
they are threatened in scripture. 

But a previous question remains to be settled. Did 
the Jews believe in the immortality of the spirit 'I 
The question is important. If we have no evidence 
that they did, the use of any words found in their 
scriptures cannot be a foundation for giving credit to 
the dogm.a of endless misery. Suffering may be com- 
mensurate with existence, but cannot exceed it 
Ergo — those who did not believe in endless existence, 
could not believe in endless torment Consciousness is 
necessary to suffering, or more philosophically speak- 
ing, to misery. But on what authority are we to pro- 
nounce that the Jews believed in a future, fixed state, 
of interminable duration? It is utterly opposed by 
their history, and even the Pharisees who are suppo- 
sed to have believed in such a state of being, are far 
from stating the fact. That they beheved in the Py- 
thagorean philosophy is pretty evident. That allu- 
sion is made to this philosophy in the ninth chapter of 
John, no less than twice, can easily be seen. And 
as Jesus passed by, he saw a man that was blind from. 
his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying. Mas- 
ter, who did sin, this manor his parents, that he was 
born blind Is it possible to refer this simple ques- 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



239 



lion to any other source than the Pythagorean philos- 
ophy ? How could the disciples, or any others, sup- 
pose that nonentity could offend ? The question sug- 
gests the answer. They supposed a previous state of 
existence, in which crimes were committed, which 
were to he punished in this state of existence. And 
the question most evidently includes the principle of 
the transmigration of spirits into different hodies. 
True, indeed, the idea of identity is necessary to un- 
derstand the justice of punishing a spirit and body in 
connexion, the latter of which had no previous exis- 
tence, and could not therefore stand connected in a 
relation to the spirit which ought to render it liable to 
misery, as a consequence of transgression. Some 
might indeed object, that to punish a spirit which had 
previously animated another body, but had lost its 
consciousness, is not according to our ideas of divine 
rectitude. And the argument is strengthened, when 
we reflect, that no human being, has the least recollec- 
tion of any previous state of being. But, perhaps the 
fallacy of all this singular jargon is supposed to be 
justified by the doctrine of original sin, as holden by 
our doctors of divinity. We grant, indeed, that the 
moderns are not a whit behind their progenitors in 
certain points of mystery^ but we are not therefore 
ready to justify the follies of one generation, by the 
Jashionable frai'ties of another. 

But the reply of the self-righteous Pharisees, to him 
who had received his si^^ht by the instrumentality of 
Jesus, leaves no doubt that the metempsychosis, more 
properly than the resurrection, was the principle held 
by the Pharisees, Thou wast altogether born in 
sins, and dost thou teach us That this is a proof 
of the prevalence of the Pythagorean philosophy, is 
gathered from the preceding question of Christ's dis- 
ciples. If /Aey gave credit to such fancies, no vvonder 
those who were less conversant with the master of as- 



240 



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semblies, should support so unfounded a theorem. 
But th^ supposition is strengthened, when we per- 
ceive that the Scribes and Sadducees, who had equal 
opportunities with the Pharisees, believed in neither 
angel nor spirit. This is certainly strong circumstan- 
tial evidence, that neither the law nor the prophets 
reveal a future state of being. But the fact may easi- 
ly be settled. If the law, or prophetical writings, inti- 
mated in undisguised language, a state of immortal be- 
ing beyond the grave, how can we maintain the integ- 
rity of that scripture which declares that Jesus 
brought life and immortality to light through the 
gospel ? When others can settle this question to their 
own satisfaction^ we shall be induced to hear with 
complacency, any arguments which they may use for 
our conversion. At present, we believe that a state of 
immortality was not known under the Mosaic dispensa- 
tion. Our readers are in possession of the facts from 
which we thus judge. To their own good sense we 
leave the subject. 

Hades, is most evidently the word used by the 
Seventy in translating the Hebrew word Sheol. By 
what means the sense of a passage is altered in a fair 
translation, is not distinctly perceived. That transla- 
tors miss the sense, and that the corresponding terms 
in the translation do not always convey the exact 
idea of the original, is very evident. But every man 
of sense must see that the errors of any version cannot 
sanctify palpable contradictions, nor can a wrested 
meaning, however long it may retain its empire, im- 
pair the sense of the original. Who for instance, wiU 
contend for the common version of Mat. 27 : 45, 46 ? 

Sleep on now, and take t/owr rest : behold the hour 
is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the 
hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. Who 
does not see the utter inconsistency of this version 
with common sense, and the whole context ? If the 



t^RIENDLY LETTERS. 241 



(Corresponding text, Mark 14 : 41, 42, imports the 
same contradiction in terms, an account of the same 
scene by Lnke, 22 : 46, redeems the subject from 
reproach, by a fair exhibition of the sense, as connect- 
ed with the subject, and the context And he said 
unto them. Why sleep ye ? rise and pray, lest ye enter 
into temptation." 

As the true sense of this subject is so obvious that 
few can miss it, we beseech those who believe in the 
infallibihty of translators, who were under the influ- 
ence of king-craft and priest-craft, to pause one mo- 
rnent, before they draw a conclusion on any important 
subject, based t>n the supposed meaning of any word 
or particular phrase ; and more especially, when the 
frequent use of the term is such that a very different 
sense must often be given^ or the connexion left in ut- 
ter confusion^ 

W e have already seen in a former section that 
though hades does not exactly correspond with Sheol^ 
yet the difference is of Httle importance. That nei- 
ther word is used to express the idea which long use 
has attached to the term hell^ as used among Chris- 
tians generally, is certainly obvious, by the examples 
already given. The etymology of the words makes 
this not less apparent, than their use at and before the 
time when they were used in scripture. Added to 
this, the very singular facility with which the transla-> 
tors accommodated the version to their views, by a 
rendering of the words so variously as to hide the 
meaning of the original by dexterous management^ 
and we have a clue to the means by which the doc- 
trine of endless torments came into general use. But 
men of research have explored this mystery of ini- 
quity ^ — the orthodox are assisting to pull down their 
own babel-— and the Light of Truth shall yet shine in- 
to the dark corners of the earth, and liberate the 



242 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



minds which have long been chained in the thraldom 
of ignorance and superstition. 

To all this, some may reply, that in at least one 
place in the New-Testament, the word hell is most evi- 
dently used to denote a place of interminable misery. 
The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is that to 
which we have alluded, which shall be cautiously ex- 
amined. That tlie parable indicates misery, or suf- 
fering, is granted ; but that this is to be endless, or in 
a future state of being, is neither said nor intimated. 
Let those who suppose this parable to uphold the ten- 
et of never-ceasing misery, put their finger on the 
phrase which supports this idea. We have in vain 
looked for it in this passage, and we trust others will 
look for it with no better success. 

If we mistake not, the Catholics look upon this par- 
able as a proof of purgatorial purification. But will 
Protestants admit this ? But why not ? It certainly 
comes as near the proof of purgatory, as of an endless 
hell. But it may be well for us to recollect that or- 
thodox critks give up had^^^^ a place of punishment 
in a future state. The ignorant and the obstinate 
cling to hell with such pertinacity, that it really seems 
they are as unwilling to part with the idea of a state 
of endless misery, as a state of bliss, from whatever 
word it may be rendered. Hence, the word Hell, 
wherever it occurs, and in whatever connexions, to 
their imagination, always conveys the same idea. But 
let us reject all preconceived opinions, and carefully 
examine the chapter in which the doctrine of unmer- 
ciful punishment is supposed to be taught, for if not 
taught in this passage, it finds no resting place in the 
Kew'Testmnent. If the passage really inculcates the 
doctrine for which it is used, it is clearly a history of 
facts^ and Ae// is thus determined to be a place of pun- 
ishment in a futwre state of being. We shall now if 
you please, sit down to the task in good earnest, exam- 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



243 



ine it as plain matter of history, and endeavour to 
canvass it fairly and amply as the opportunity will 
permit. That this may be done in the most accepta- 
ble manner, and enable every reader to judge for him- 
self at the moment of reading, we shall cite the whole 
in connexion, commencing Luke 16 : 19. 

There was a certain rich man, which was clothed 
in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every 
day : and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, 
which was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring 
ft) be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich 
man's table : moreover, the dogs came and licked his 
sores. And it came to pass that the beggar died, and 
was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom : 
the rich man also died and was buried. And in hell 
he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and seeing 
Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he 
cried, and said, Father Abraham have mercy on me, 
and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger 
in water, and cool my tongue ; for I am tormented in 
this flame. Bat Abraham said. Son, remember that 
thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things, and 
likewise Lazarus evil things ; but now he is comforted 
and thou art tormented. And besides all this, be- 
tween us and you is a great gulf fixed ; so that they 
w^hich would pass from hence to you cannot ; neither 
can they pass to us that would come from thence. 
Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou 
wouldst send him to my father's house ; for I have five 
brethren ; that he may testify unto them, lest they al- 
so come into this place of torment. Abraham saith 
unto him, They have Moses and the prophets : let 
them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham ; 
but if one went unto them from the dead, they will re« 
pent. And he said unto him. If they hear not Moses 
and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded 
though one rose from the dead,'' 



.244 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



Having by this time, carefully examined this as his- 
torical fact, what information have we obtained ? We 
have read of a rich man, well fed and well clothed, a 
circumstance of frequent occurrence, even in our day/ 
We also learn that a beggar, full of sores, was laid at 
his gate, who desired to be fed with the crumbs which 
fell from the rich man's table. Both these men died. 
The one, even without the rite of sepulture, as we can 
perceive, was carried by angels^ and deposited in the 
bosom of Abraham, the grand Patriarch of the Jewish 
nation. A very singular fact^ if it be one, to say the 
least. The rich man was buried, and lifting up his 
eyes in torment, saw the polluted carcass of Lazarus in 
the bosom of Abraham. He recognized the venerable 
Patriarch as his Father, but not Lazarus as a broth- 
er^ nor did he request an act of favour to be perform- 
ed through him as such. His susceptibility of suffer- 
ing through the medium of his bodily organs appears 
not to have experienced any change — it seems to be 
still as subject to the influence o{ material objects as 
at any former period. His complaint of suffering ap- 
plies particularly to the tongue, by the use of which, 
however, he appears to converse with much freedom. 
The modesty of his request is most certainly as un- 
obtrusive as was that of Lazarus on a former occa- 
sion ; he merely soHcits that the beggar might be sent 
to dip the tip of his finger in water, for the purpose of 
cooling his tongue. Astonishing that he should make 
this request ! Why ask for a mere drop ! and where 
was the water to be obtained ! in hell— But the Pa- 
triarch appears to be taking his ease within hailing 
distance, and on the same /ere/ too, for all the verbs 
used indicate motion in a horizontal direction. Not 
the least intimation is given that one is up^ while the 
other is Jozijn.— But let us notice the reply. Son, 
remember- — remember what ? that he had been a 
sensuahst, a hardhearted, unfeeUng glutton No, not 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



245 



a word like this. What then ? Son, remember, that 
thou in thy life time [he is dead now] receivedst thy 
good things. Very well, and were his good things 
ill-gotten gain ? Had he extorted under false represen- 
tations — or under the convenient mask of long faces 
and long prayers, the last penny from the needy? Had 
he taken the last mite from " the widow weeping 
over her helpless orphans" to replenish the treasury 
of the LORD ? No such abominations are laid to his 
charge, nor is a vestige of crime alleged against him.- 
It is not even said of him, 

And for a mantle large and iang". 
He cloak'd him in religion .' ' 

His character and conduct, for anything which ap 
pears to the contrary, were unexceptionable. He re- 
ceived his good things from the author of all good, and 
not one intimation is offered, that he had either mis* 
improved, or enjoyed them thanklessly. But on$ 
trait of character is discoverable in the whole affair, 
and that is kindness to others, even in the midst of his 
sufferings. This differs entirely from the orthodox 
represeutation of the damned in hell. 

The former situation of Lazarus is brought in con- 
trast with his present state. He had in his life time, 
received his evil things, but not through the means of 
the rich man. He is dead, and " the dead know not 
any thing,'' but still, he is comforted. No eulogy is 
pronounced on the piety of his former life, no self-grat— 
ulation on account of the discriminating grace which 
selected him as a monument of God's sparing mercy, 
while others no better than himself, were consigned to 
realms of hopeless wo, for the glory of God's vindic- 
tive justice; nor do we learn that paeans of praise 
were sung for joy, while contemplating the damnation 
of the sufferer. The comforted and the tormented 



246 FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



had changed conditions. One received consolation ; 
the other was miserable. 

For any thing which appears to the contrary, the 
dead retained the use of all their faculties, with the 
identity of their bodily organs, as completely as at any 
former period of their existence. The flame in which 
the rich man was enveloped, seems not to have impair- 
ed, either his vision or his speech. He recognized 
both Abraham and Lazarus ; they seem to converse 
with as much propriety as people do on this mundane 
sphere ; nor were the pains of the sufferer sufficient to 
interrupt a regular succession of ideas, nor the usual 
mode of expression. 

But another consideration presses hard on the sub- 
ject. Not a word is heard of the resurrection, nor of 
a general judgment. The transition appears to be 
instantaneous. No invitation— Come ye blessed ! No 
sentence — Depart ye cursed ! No reason given for the 
contrast which was both sudden and great, between 
their present and former circumstances, save the im- 
plied equality which was effected by the change. 

But a reason is given why Lazarus could not fulfill 
the request for relief. A great guif was fixed between 
them. This appears to have escaped the notice of 
the petitioner. Abraham was not " higher than heav- 
en,'' that the rich man should inquire, what shall / 
do!'' Nor was he, in comparison with Abraham, 

deeper than hell." The gulf was fixed, so that they 
who would go hence to you cannot ! Marvellous in- 
deed ! what, were any disposed to pass from the Abra- 
hamic, the comforting portion of hades^ or hell, to the 
opposite side of the gulf? So the language would im- 
port, as clearly as that the rich, or more properly re- 
duced man, would exchange places with Lazarus. 
This indeed he did not ask. But was the rich man 
alone^ or in hell with the damned If this be pure 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



247 



history, determine for yourself, why he should rather 
say / am tormented, than zee are ? 

But the knowledge of this gulf forecloses all inter- 
cession in his own behalf. He now solicits that Laz- 
arus may be sent to his fathers koiise^ to his five breth- 
ren, of course to the children of Abraham ! For wha-t 
end does he request this ? ''That he may testify unto 
them." For what purpose ? " Lest they also come 
into this place of torment." What was to be the bur- 
den of his testimony ? The same which Moses and 
other prophets testified ; for Abraham says, " They 
have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them." 
What then was their testimony ? Did they in one in- 
stance threaten an endless hell, to the chosen, but stiff- 
necked Israelites ? I answer unhesitatingly, NO. 
They4estified to the coming of the Just One, the Mes- 
siah, the Shiloh, the desire of all nations, who should 
finish transgression, and bring sin to an end. Abra- 
ham is therefore very properly represented as saying. 

If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will 
they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." 
How clearly this was verified in its fair and scriptural 
import, will be seen in its proper place. 

W e have now traced the subject in its leading points, 
if not to the extent of its various ramifications, and we 
have seen that as a whole, it has no possible claims to 
stand in the rank of realities. The first part, indeed, 
which describes the characteristics of the two men, 
would by itself require no illustration to make it ap- 
pear as a history of facts ; thus to lead the mind un- 
consciously into a train of ideas by the use of easy si- 
militudes, is the very object of parables, and is the 
mode by which wise men in all ages have imparted 
useful information. But what shall we say of the re- 
mainder of this chapter ? Does it agree, or rather, does 
it not disagree, not only with the testimony of our sen- 
ses, but with the most obviously literal declarations of 



248 FRIENDLY LETTERS. 

scripture — and that too without exhibiting as a conse- 
quent moral, either warnings or encouragements? 
Considered hterally, it is a perfect blank. Thus idly 
amusing the populace with sounding brass, was not 
the method in which our master spent his precious 
time. 

Those who still pertinaciously adhere to this portion 
of scripture as a relation of fects, may perhaps fancy 
with Tertullian, "the shape and corporeal lineaments" 
of departed spirits, and that they " do yet preserve 
the shape or character of the body to which they 
were united but why not also adopt the reveries of 
Pythagoras, on the metempsychosis, or transmigration 
of souls ? Each boasts antiquity for its origin, and 
each may claim equal authority from scripture. Thes- 
pesias, indeed, " returning to life, represents the col- 
our of souls, and saith there be scars and ulcers of 
their passions left upon them, by which they are dis- 
cerned.'' But have you any belief in all this sublima- 
ted nonsense ? 

But a circumstance of no inconsiderable importance 
in this discussion, settles the character of the passage 
beyond controversy. The fact to which 1 allude is 
quoted by Mr, Balfour from the celebrated Dr. Whit- 
by, on this passage, which I give you verbatim. We 
find this very parable in the Gemara Babylonicum, 
whence it is cited by Mr. Sheringham, in the preface 
of his Joma." Now the very circumstance of finding 
it primarily used as a parable, in a work written long 
anterior to the Christian dispensation, and its repeti- 
tion by our Saviour without the least intimation of 
change from a figurative to a literal construction of 
the language — is very conclusive evidence that he us- 
ed it as a parable, and in no other sense. What was its 
use as a figurative representation will be seen in the 
sequel. But when such critics as Campbell, Dodd- 
ridge, Chapman 9 and other commentators, are com» 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



249 



pelled to consider this subject as entirely figurative, 
the conclusion that their judgment is founded on irre- 
sistible testimony is obvious, it is inevitable. But the 
strength of this is increased, when we recollect that 
this is the only place in the New Testament, where 
HADES, here rendered hell, is connected with pun- 
ishment ! In allusion to this fact we conceive the pres- 
ent subject particularly interesting. 

You are already aware that hades, and not Gehen- 
na, is the word rendered hell in the passage before us. 
Of this word Dr. Campbell says : ''In my judgment 
it ought never in scripture to be rendered hell, at least 
in the sense in which that word is now understood by 
Christians." This orthodox Doctor gave this opinion 
w^ith the most convincing data. 

' Notwithstanding the labour already expended on 
the negative side of this subject, we shall state a rea- 
son sometimes urged in favour of a literal interpreta* 
tion of the passage, which shall be fearlessly met, and 
fairly investigated. The objection arises from the 
fact, that it is not introduced as a parable. This ob- 
jection is easily repelled by a direct appeal to the com- 
mencement of other parables. To begin then with 
this very chapter. It commences with the parable of 
the Unjust Steward. To the use of this as a parable, 
w^e think no one objects. But where is its imaginary t 
It is as bare of figure, as is the skeleton tree of foilage, 
in the depth of winter. Nothing connected with it, 
but looks more like fact than figure, if we expect its 
application, and even that is ambiguous. Not so with 
the parable under consideration. Here the imagery 
is brilliant, and the scope extensive. But we will 
now call your attention to the comparison. There 
was a certain rich man, which," is the introduction to 
the first. " There was a certain rich man, which," is 
the introduction to the one under examination. What 
a remarkable coincidence. Not a word is said of 



250 FRIENDLY LETTERS. 

either as a parable — their commencement is the same. 
The parable under discussion is full of imagery, and 
as history, is equally full of improbabilities, not to add 
impossibihties — the other, destitute of imagery, is 
taken for granted as parable, nemine contradicente ; 
and why ? It does not militate against any preconceiv- 
ed opinions. Were no other fact perceptible, the 
very reason which is objected to the one as figure, is 
demonstrably evident as the other is concerned. But 
though this is considered as an entire answer to the 
objection now stated, you may compare at your leis- 
ure, Mat. 13 : 44, 45 — 47 — 49, where you may find 
parables introduced in as abrupt a manner as the one 
under consideration. See also Mat, 20 L the para- 
ble of the labourers ; also Mat. 25 : 1. respecting the 
ten virgins, and that of the talents, v. 14. with others 
ad libitum. Of those in Mat. 13. it may indeed be 
urged, that " All these things spake Jesus to the mul- 
titude in parables, and without a parable, spake he 
not unto them/' But you ought to perceive that this 
includes in the most ample form, the very subject un- 
der examination. The multitudes was contradistin- 
guished from the disciples ; this was spoken to the 
Pharisees ; ergo, to the multitude. It is then a para- 
ble. 

ISTTER 13. 

Having already shown, and, as we trust conclusive- 
ly, that a literal understanding of this subject involves 
the most palpable absurdities, we shall now turn your 
attention to what is beUeved to be its true meaning. 
The rich man will now be considered as a type of the 
Jewish nationj and Lazarus as an emblem of the Gen- 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



261 



tile world. That this is the import of the passage, 
we shall now endeavour to make obvious* 

The parable represents these two as contradistin- 
guished each from the other, — the one rich, and the 
other poor. That this relates to spiritual privileges, 
in which the Gentiles were far behind the Jews 
is a position which is soon illustrated. But perhaps 
we may first inquire into the propriety of using the 
singular number when speaking of the whole people. 
Let us then recur to scripture authority for a prece- 
dent. Deut. 32 : 9, to close of the 15th verse. 

Here we observe, not only that the Lord's people 
are spoken of collectively in the singular number, but 
that they are represented as rich, even in the good 
things of this life through the favour of our heavenly 
father. Nor is this more evident than that he was 
equally rich in spirituals. Paul, in answer to the ques- 
tion — What advantage then hath the Jew ? rephes, 
— " Much, every way : chiefly, because that unto 
them were committed the oracles of God.'' And 
again ; 

Who are Israelites ; to w^hom pertaineth the adop- 
tion, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving 
of the law, and the service of God, and the promises ; 
whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the 
flesh, Christ came." 

The clothing of the rich man is described, Exod. 
27 : 9, 4, 5. 

Thus was the rich man, the high priest and repre- 
sentative of the Jewish people, clothed in purple and 
fine linen ; and that both he and the people fared 
sumptuously every day, we may learn by the daily sac- 
rifices, and more specially by the peculiar demonstra- 
tions of divine favour which are expressed as follows: 
" And 1 will dwell among the children of Israel, and 
will be their God." What nation, then, was hkethat 
nation, whose God was the Lord ?" • We see the 



152 



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propriety of representing the Jewish nation as a man^ 
a RICH man. His clothing and his fare are described 
in the scriptures of truth, and to this the parabohe 
language of our Saviour agrees. But the hfe of this 
privileged man closes. The law, which had been a 
lamp to his feet, and a lantern to his path, had been 
made void by vain traditions. He had neglected at- 
tendance on those oracles of divine wisdom, which had 
been his life, and he is now dead. The legal dispen* 
sation had ceased. Having misimproved his talentj 
the kingdom of God was taken from him and given 
to another, bringing forth the fruits thereof. He was 
consequently shut out into utter darkness^ where is 
weeping and gnashing of teeth. BHndness in part had 
now happened to Israel, and shall continue until the 
fullness of the Gentiles shall come in. He was there- 
fore b«ried in the darkness expressed by an apostle — 
Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see, and 
bow down their back alway. He now saw Abraham 
afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. Thus was the pre- 
diction of the Saviour fulfilled, recorded Luke 13 : 
28, 29, 30. 

" There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, 
when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and 
all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you your- 
selves thrust out. And they shall come from the eastj 
and from the west, and from the north, and from the 
south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And 
behold, there are last which shall be first, and there 
aVe first which shall be last.'' 

It was at the close of the Mosaic dispensation, when 
the master of the house, the high priest of our profes- 
sion, had shut the door on the Jews, and opened it to 
the Gentiles, that those which had been the first, and 
highly favoured people, became the last ; and the Gen- 
tiles, who had been the last, were in the same sense 
made the first. The Gentiles came from the four qiiar- 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



253 



ters of the earth, and found life in the dispensation of 
the Gospel, the same gospel which had been preach- 
ed to Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be 
blessed. 

We have before said, that this is the only passage in 
the New-Testament, in which hades is connected with 
punishment. You will recollect that the original term 
signifies unqualified darkness. If this is a parable, 
hell is here used to signify mental darkness, as it liter- 
ally signifies physical darkness. Thus does the figure 
completely correspond with the fact. Hence it is ob- 
vious, that as the Jewish nation looked to the right- 
eousness of the ritual law, which consisted of carnal 
ordinances, so the rich man in the parable calls to his 
father after the flesh for assistance. Having rejected 
the counsel of God against themselves, and refused to 
submit to the rule of a suflfering Messiah, they judged 
themselves unworthy of eternal life, and the angels, 
or ministers of the gospel, turned to the Gentiles, who 
were thus brought into the life of the gospel, the faith 
of Abraham. 

To exhibit the force of Abraham's closing reply to 
the rich man, If they hear not Moses and the. 
prophets, neither would they be persuaded though 
one rose from the dead,'' let us refer to John 5 : 45, 
46. 

" Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father : 
there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom 
ye trust. For had ye beheved Moses, ye would have 
believed me: for he wrote of me." 

But what says Paul to the Romans on this subject ? 

" For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet 
have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: 
Ev en so have these also now not beheved, that through 
your mercy they also may obtain mercy." 

It hence appears obvious, that the unbelief of the 
Jews, and the faith of the GentileSj were simultane- 

22 



254 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



ous. The one died to all which distinguished them as 
rich in their Hfe time — the other died to their idola-^ 
trous worship, and to their ignorance of the true God, 
and no wonder the Apostles exclaimed in astonish- 
ment, " Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted 
repentance unto life.'' Thus the rich man died, and 
was buried— the poor man needed no burial, he came 
to life — the life of the new dispensation^ 

In speaking of this passage literally, notice was taken 
of the entire want of character from which to infer 
the cause of the sudden change of circumstances re- 
lated of these two men. As a figure, it is truly chafac» 
teristic of the relative rituation of the two grand divis- 
ions of men. Not only v/ere the Jews highly privi- 
leged as a people, but their exclusive claim to these 
privileges was so deeply rooted, that even the apostles 
of our Lord, had strong doubts of the propriety of 
teaching the way of life to the Gentiles. Nay, the Sa- 
viour of men, while under the Mosaic dispensation, 
afforded strong evidence of this exclusive spirit. His 
disciples were forbidden to preach to the Gentiles, 
and he declared himself not sent, but to the lost sheep 
of the house of Israel. True, after his reurrection, 
the commission was extended to every creature ; yet 
before his crucifixion, he declared it not meet to give 
the children'^s bread to dogs, alluding to the case of 
the Gentile woman. Here then is a case in point. 
The woman answered — '' Truth Lord, yet the dogs 
eat the crumbs which fall from their master's table.'' 
What a singular coincidence ! The Jews, and even 
Christ, at that time, considered the Gentiles as dogs. 

That the Gentiles, who are here represented in the 
character of a beggar, were poor in the same sense in 
which the Jews were rich, will hardly be disputed, 
when reference is made to Eph. 2 : 11,12. 

" Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past 
Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcisioii 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



255 



loy that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh 
made by hands ; that at that time ye were without 
Christ, being aUens from the commonwealth of Israel, 
and strangers from the covenants of promise, having 
no hope, and without God in the world.'' 

The poor man is represented as outside the rich 
man's gate, Without are dogs.'^ He is also said to 
be full of sores. If being strangers from the cove- 
nants of promise, and without hope, does not suffi- 
ciently point out the moral ulcers of the Gentile 
world, we know not in what language to describe it. 
See Isa. 1 : 5, 6. 

That the exclusive spirit of the Jewish nation was 
highly provoked by any intimation of granting their 
privileges to the Gentile world, is manifested by their 
conduct to the Messiah, on his hinting the change 
which was about to take place between these two 
grand divisions of men. They thrust him out of the 
city, and led him to the brow of the hill whereon their 
city w^as built, that they might cast him down head- 
long. What, did the Spirit of Pharisaic pride, which 
says, " Stand by thyself — I am holier than thou 
prompt them to 7nurder ! It did — nor is this a solita- 
ry instance. 

And he said unto me, depart : for I will send thee 
far hence unto the Gentiles. And they gave him au- 
dience unto this word^ and then lifted up their voices, 
and said, away with such a fellow from the earth ; for 
it is not fit that he should live.'' 

But perhaps you are ready to inquire, what is meant 
by the dogs licking his sores ? We conceive it points 
to the instructions of the heathen philosophers, which 
might palliate, but could not heal, their moral diseas- 
es. Life and immortality were brought to light 
through the gospel." The death of the poor man was 
the close of his dispensation of misery. The life time 
in which he had received his evil things terminated^ 



256 FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



and he was brought by the angels, or messengers, or 
ministers of the gospel, into the glorious life, and 
light, and liberty of the new dispensation. He came 
from darkness into the light of divine truth, he was 
not buried. The rich man died to the light, and was 
buried in darkness as profound as that from which 
Abraham was taken — -he was therefore buried — he is 
buried stilL He listened not to the voice which said, 
Turn ye, turn ye, O house of Israel, for why will ye 
die ? But the Deliverer shall come out of Zion, and 
turn away ungodHness from Jacob. The vision of 
the dry bones in Ezekiel 37 : will yet be fulfilled. 

" Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones 
are the whole house of Israel : behold, they say, Our 
bones are dried, and our hope is lost ; we are cut off 
for our parts. Therefore prophecy and say unto 
them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O my peo- 
ple, I will open your graves, and cause you to come 
up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of 
Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when 
I have opened your srraves, O my people, and brought 
y6U tip out of your graves, and shall put my Spirit in 
you, and ye shall Hve ; and I shall place you in your 
own land : then shall ye know that I the Lord have 
j^poken it^ and performed it^ saith the Lord." 

That the primitive preachers of the gospel were 
termed angels, will not admit of disputation, and that 
they were commisioned to turn the Gentiles from a 
state of mental darkness and moral degradation, 
to the hght of the gospel, is evident from Acts 36 : 
17,18. 

DeHvering thee from the people, and from the 
Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their 
eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and 
from the power of Satan unto God, that they may re- 
ceive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them 
which are sanctified by faith which is in me*'' 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 267 



Perhaps you are by this time ready to inquire what 
is meant by the great gulf, which completely preclu- 
ded the possibihty of passing to and fro. 1 presume 
it means no more than the determination of God, who 
hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they 
should not see, and ears that they should not hear unto 
this day. This prediction will most surely be fulfill- 
ed, and nothing but the necessary time to bring in 
the fulness of the Gentiles is now wanting to close the 
glorious promises respecting this people. Do you learn 
that this can never be passed ? on what page of scrip- 
ture do you find it written. The Jews were to bow 
down their back alway, but a deliverance is neverthe- 
less promised. ' That which cannot be performed to- 
day, may be accomplished to-morrow. That which 
was broken from its own olive tree can be grafted in 
again, and so all Israel shall be saved, and the top 
stone of salvation shall be brought forth with joy, cry- 
ing grace, grace. Christ said to his disciples, as he 
did to the Jews, whither I go ye cannot come — but 
the question of a disciple, elicited an answer of peace. 
But instances of this description are so common, that 
you will hardly need a repetition in this place. 

You may also be ready to ask, who were the five 
brethren of the rich man. Whether the number five 
has here any special reference to any definite portion 
of men, is not perhaps certain. But it certain, that 
as the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin were count- 
ed but one, so the ten tribes would, in the same ratio, 
number five. That the Samaritans, or ten tribes, 
were acknowledged by the Jews as children of Abra- 
ham, is evident, notwithstanding they had no dealings 
together. And that they felt them nearer of kin, and 
nearer in feeling, than others called Gentiles, is more 
than probable. And as the ten tribes never did op- 
pose the gospel as did the Jews, so it might be saidj 
they had not come into the place of torment into 



258 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



which unbelief has brought the Jews. Hence the 
whole is easy of understanding. Tht rich man did not 
consider Lazarus as his brother — but he saw him in a 
situation as he supposed, to render assistance. The 
peiplexity of the Jews was great. They were tribu- 
tary to the Romans, and continually expecting a con- 
quering Messiah, who should rescue them from this 
state of vassalage. The time of his coming, was at the 
advent of Christ, and hence they would take him by 
force and make him a king ; hence also, the populace 
cried, Hosanna to the son of David — and the same 
populace cried, crucifij hinx- — his blood be on us and 
on our children. 

But after all which has been said on this citation, 
some may yet inquire, how comes it about, that so 
many learned men still persist in using this text as 
proof of interminable misery ? We answer, first, by 
inquiring whether circumstantial testimony, and that 
very equivocal, is sufficient to outweigh the phalanx 
of facts which guard this passage from perversion ? 
If you answer, Yes — you are prepared to believe in 
the infallibility of Popes, and Synods, and Councils. 
If you reply. No — the question is answered, and the 
subject is put to rest. 

But again — If the tenet is true, merely because ma- 
ny believe and teach it, why not always go with the 
current of public opinion ? On this principle, the J ews 
were justified in their persecution of Christ and his 
disciples, and you would thus commend the maxim, 
that the voice of the people is the voice of God. 
Numbers would thus sanctify error, and that may be 
orthodox to-day which will be the most damnable her- 
esy to-morrow. On this principle too, the multitude 
might say to the few who think — Hitherto shalt thou 
go, and no further. Every advance which has been 
made in knowledge would thus be an advance in error, 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



25^ 



and we might be persuaded to retrace our steps from 
civilization to the most heathen barbarism. 

We have now looked again at the words sheol and 
hades, and at their use in the scriptures. We have 
taken one instance of the use of the latter, and that 
ithe strongest instance in the New-Testament, and on 
examination, found it wanting, as a support for the 
vulgar but popular error of endless misery. Scrip- 
ture, reason, analogy, are ail against it, as a term ex- 
pressing a place of punishment posterior to this mode 
of existence. We find it used figuratively as an em- 
blem of the shutting up of the Jews from the privile- 
ges of the gospel kingdom, and of the entrance of the 
Gentiles into this kingdom. It is thus, that it fulfils 
the predictions of the Bible, and affords strong reason 
for trusting in the fulfilment of every other prophecy 
yet to be accomplished. 

In confirmation of what has been advanced on this 
passage, we shall quote from Dr. Campbell. On the 
word a6r]g he says — 

^Here it is represented as a place of punisment. 
The rich man is said to be tormented there in the 
midst of flames. These things will deserve to be ex- 
amined narrowly. It is plain, that in the Old Testa- 
ment, the most profound silence is observed in regard 
to the state of the deceased, their joys or sorrows, 
happiness or misery. It is represented to us rather 
by negative qualities than by positive, by its silence, 
its darkness, its being inaccessible, unless by preter- 
natural means, to the living, and their ignorance about 
it. Thus much in general seems always to have been 
presumed concerning it, that it is not a state of activi- 
ty adapted for exertion, or indeed for the accomplish- 
ment of any important purpose, good or bad. In 
most respects, however, there was a resemblance ia 
their notions on this subject, to those of the most an- 
cient heathen. 



260 



FRIENDLY LETTERS. 



But the opinions neither of Hebrews nor of heath- 
en, remained invariably the same. And from the time 
of the captivity, more especially from the time of the 
subjection of the Jews, first to the Macedonian empire, 
and afterwards to the Romans ; as they had a closer in- 
tercourse with Pagans, they insensibly imbibed many 
of their sentiments, particularly on those subjects 
whereon their law was silent, and wherein, by conse- 
quence, they considered themselves as at greater free- 
dom. On this subject of a future state, w e find a con- 
siderable difference in the popular opinions of the 
Jews in our Saviour's time, from those which prevail- 
ed in the days of the ancient prophets. As both 
Greeks and Romans had adopted the notion,' that the 
ghosts of the departed were susceptible both of enjoy- 
ment and of suffering, they were led to suppose a sort 
of retribution in that state, for their merit or demerit 
in the present. The Jews did not indeed adopt the 
Pagan fables on this subject, nor did they express them* 
selves entirely in the same manner ; but the general 
train of thinking in both came pretty much to coin- 
cide. The Greek hades they found well adapted to 
express the Hebrew sheol. This they came to con« 
ceive as including different sorts of habitations for 
ghosts of different characters. And though they did 
not receive the terms Elysium or Elysian fields, as 
suitable appellations for the regions peopled by good 
spirits, they took instead of them, as better adapted to 
their own theology, the garden of Eden or Paradise, a 
name originally Persian, by which the word answering 
to garden, especially when applied to Eden, had com- 
monly been rendered by the Seventy. To denote the 
same state, they sometimes used the phrase Abraham's 
bosom, a metaphor borrowed from the manner in 
which they rechned at meals."" 



END, 



TO THE READER. 



The following should have appeared as a note, 
predicated on the word graves^ found in John 5 : 28. 
It is copied from A summary view of the Millennial 
Church." 

Mv7^|!jts;o/r i. e. monuments or places of remem* 
hrance. Much stress is laid upon the word graves^ as 
evidence that Christ alluded particularly to the natu- 
ral body ; but the original word which is translated 
graves^ was used by the ancient Greeks to signifyj»/a- 
ces of remembrance^ called by the Rt)mans monumen- 
tal in English monuments^ which is a more correct 
translation ihdJi graves. But if those only who have 
monuments erected to their memory are to be raised, 
the number must be very small in proportion to the 
whole human race ; for a vast portion have never 
even had the honor of being put into graves. Jesus 
evidently used the expression in a figurative sense, to 
show that the time was approaching in which all the 
fallen race, in their various places and orders, would 
be brought to a remembrance or consideration of their 
lost state, and of what they had done ; and that their 
past lives, with all their sins would come into remem- 
brance and be clearly laid open to their view ; and 
being waked up to a sense of feeling, by the sound of 
the everlasting gospel, which is the voice of the Son of 
God, they would either come to the resurrection of 
life, by honestly confessing their sms, and obeying 
the gospel ; or to the resurrection of damnation, [or 
condemnation] by obstinately refusing to comply with 
the calls of the gospel, as many are now doing, con- 
trary to their own light and conviction. 



t 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2006 

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